Some things never change and a look at the Scotland u-19 bench for the Euro qualfier against Germany showed that the tradition of overlooking Celtic players is alive and well.
Sitting on the bench as Donald Park’s side were turned over 3-0 by Germany, Robbie Deas, Stephen Welsh and Daniel Church must have been wondering why they didn’t start the match.
The answer was probably sitting in the stand, suited and booted with clipboard in hand was Sevco youth supremo Craig Mulholland, invited along as a guest of the SFA.
All of a sudden the defence that has grown up and developed together for club and country has been ditched for some of the projects in the Sevco development plan.
Incredibly the Mulholland master-plan involves taking players out of competitive football at the age of 18 in favour of a bizarre schedule to play friendlies against teams from Belgium, Holland and who knows where alongside a few glamour matches against Manchester United and Valencia.
Mulholland, who bares a striking resemblance to a young Derek Johnstone, has flown through the ranks at Ibrox using the same skill sets as Mark Warburton and Graeme Murty.
A flair for power-point presentations, a fanatical approach to personal development and learning alongside stringing together sentences full of journeys, education and learning curves comes before actual achievements.
In the Scotland side that lost 3-0 to Germany were six Sevco ‘starlets’. In their only competitive action of the season Sevco beat Partick Thistle in the SFA Youth Cup then lost to St Johnstone. Matthew Shiels, a product of Murray Park scored an own goal and conceded a penalty against the Germans.
Celtic beat St Johnstone 4-0 in the next round of the SFA Youth Cup, there are no players from the Perth club in the Scotland u-19 squad. Sevco loan starlets Aidan Wilson and Kieran Wright have played 10 first team matches in the lower Scottish leagues while out on loan at Dumbarton and Albion Rovers.
For whatever reason Scotland coach Donald Park felt that players who had recently been involved in a mid morning friendly against AEK Athens at the Ravenscraig Sports Centre were better equipped than those involved in the earlier qualification stage.
Last season Deas, Welsh and Church formed 75% of the Scotland u-17 defence that got through two rounds of qualifiers to reach the last eight before the negativity of the coaching staff turned further qualification into failure.
These competitions are meant to be about a balance of development and winning.
The Celtic defensive trio have came through the ranks at various age levels and also featured in the UEFA Youth League. They have acquired a lot of international experience and should have been involved against the Germans.
Celtic’s u-19 side were a good match in the UEFA Youth League for their counterparts from PSG, Bayern Munich and Anderlecht. In all six matches Tommy McIntyre’s side competed well but suffered from losing late killer goals although an away win against Anderlecht was welcomed.
Scotland’s next match is against Holland on Saturday followed by a clash with Norway with only the group winners progressing.
Will Park stick with his Sevco starlets or turn to his bench and select players that have been involved in competitive matches this season?
SCOTLAND (4-3-3): Wright (Sevco/ Albion Rovers); Duffy (Celtic), Porteous (Hibs), Wilson (Sevco/Dumbarton), Shiels (Sevco): McInroy (Celtic (Watt 83 Wolves), Barjonas (Sevco) (MIddleton 66 Sevco), Ferguson (Hamilton): Aitchison (Celtic), Hornby (Everton), Murray (Hibs) (Rudden 74 Sevco).
UNUSED SUBS: McAdams, Deas, Welsh, Gilmour, Church, Mitchell.
Aidan Wilson has played two matches while out on loan at Dumbarton, Kieran Wright has played in eight matches for Albion Rovers.
