Celtic are braced for the departure of Josh Adam to Manchester City.
The midfielder turned 16 in February and has resisted signing a professional contract with a move to the Etihad expected in the summer.
The Sun reports:
CELTIC are braced to lose yet another top prospect with Manchester City poised to poach exciting midfield talent Josh Adam.
SunSport understands the gifted playmaker – who turned 16 in February – has been tracked by City scouts since he dazzled a year ago for the Hoops youths at the prestigious Marc Overmars tournament in Holland and was named player of the competition.
With Liam Morrison expected to be joined at Bayern Munich the loss of young players is becoming an increasing problem for Celtic’s Academy to cope with.
Celtic have been able to do likewise with players ranging from Moussa Dembele to Luca Connell and Kundai Benyu moving north from England with varying fortunes.
UEFA don’t allow players to leave their national association until the age of 16 with agreed levels of compensation but that isn’t likely to deter clubs with the resources of Bayern or Man City.
While finance is a major issue the lack of structure to youth football in Scotland is also a problem for young players looking at their future.
After u-18 there is no formal (Reserve League) structure in Scotland with players generally left to go out on loan to progress.
In England City play in the 12 team u-23 league which has two divisions allowing Derby and Blackburn to be in the top division with the City u-23 side also playing in the League Cup with City opting out of this season’s Premier League International Cup.