The Liam Scales mystery

A report from Ireland claims that Celtic are unimpressed over the treatment of Liam Scales during the international break.

The defender was a late call up to the Ireland squad but failed to make the bench for the matches away to Azerbaijan or at home to Qatar.

Those circumstances usually irk the club but Scales has yet to make his full international debut and has only had 30 minutes of action (against Raith Rovers in the League Cup) since switching from Shamrock Rovers to Celtic at the end of August.

In a throw-away line without any explanation at the bottom of an article about Stephen Kenny’s prospects of a new contract from the FAI, popular Irish site Extra reports:

Meanwhile, Celtic are understood to be unimpressed at the treatment of defender Liam Scales, who was called up as a late replacement but didn’t make either match-day squad.

How Extra manage to get the thoughts of Ange Postecoglou is something of a mystery but Scales finds himself in a Catch 22 situation with both his club and country looking for the other to provide him with game time.

Until his move to Celtic he was playing twice a week for Shamrock Rovers including Europa Conference qualifying ties.

Motherwell away, Ferencvaros, St Johnstone and Hibs are next up for Celtic, with none of those fixtures providing an obvious opportunity to give Scales more playing time.

Adam Montgomery has been preferred at left-back in the last three fixtures, after his match-winning assist away to Aberdeen he’ll be expecting to start Saturday’s match at Motherwell.