Soccer Football - International Friendly - Scotland v Poland - Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - March 24, 2022 Poland's Sebastian Szymanski in action with Scotland's Aaron Hickey Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith
Celtic are reported to be looking to sign up five Scottish based players from the Academies of other clubs.
It seems that after 12 years of focussing on their partnership with St Ninian’s High School in Kirkintilloch the club is realising that that scheme is producing virtually no-one close to first team level.
Although not quite a fool-proof guide only Adam Montgomery out on loan at St Johnstone has played for the Scotland u-21 side this season, a year ago Stephen Welsh was the club’s only representative at that level.
The gap between Academy football and the Celtic first team has been one that the club has struggled to plug for a long time, playing in the Lowland League is useful for 16 and 17-year-olds but it requires high end first team football to create a first team player as Greg Taylor and Kilmarnock and David Turnbull from Motherwell have illustrated.
Turning to the next group of targets the Daily Record reports:
Celtic have joined Rangers in the fight for Hearts frontman James Wilson and are looking to make a number of raids on other rivals to further boost their academy and development ranks.
The Hoops are also keen to hold talks with Aberdeen’s Lewis Pirie, Motherwell’s Jonjo Webb, Hamilton’s Joshua McDonald and Partick Thistle’s Hayden Borland. The champions, like Rangers, have also informed Hearts of their intention to speak to Wilson – who is the current Tynecastle academy player of the year.
Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur are also interested in the teenage frontman, although Hearts are fighting to keep him in the capital. Celtic sent out a number of letters to fellow clubs expressing an interest in a number of their rising stars last month.
During the summer Dylan Reid turned down the chance to join Celtic despite St Mirren accepting an offer of over £100,000.
The loss of the Reserve League and the failure to set up loan networks has slowed down the trickle of players from the Celtic Academy into the first team with the example of Aaron Hickey via Hearts and Bologna to Brentford contrasting with Owen Moffat who is six months older than Hickey and now playing for Blackpool’s Development Squad.
? Following a 9am pitch inspection at Central Park, today’s @OfficialSLFL game v @CelticFCB has been postponed due to a frozen pitch.
A new date will be announced in due course.
— Cowdenbeath FC (@CowdenbeathFC) December 10, 2022
Celtic should be using these boys in the first team. 4-0 up at home against strugglers why not put on three younger players and give them a go. Moffat is in Blackpool’s development squad, he looked good in the reserves. Why Blackpool give him a go if he is not good enough then he can go to Blackpool.
Give them short spells at various clubs, preferably in Europe. Maybe it would take a lot of administration, but three four-month spells at different Academies would give them a good experience.