Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v Aberdeen - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - July 31, 2022 Celtic players in a huddle before the match REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
With few exceptions Celtic are about to release their entire B team squad and u-19 players.
Isaac English and Francis Turley have contracts beyond the end of this season.
The news emerged at lunchtime today from Paul John Dykes on the ACSOM bulletin. Soon afterwards a report in The Sun claimed that Celtic will be pulling out of the Lowland League which ends this weekend.
Neither development is a huge shock. Despite spending big on the new training facility at Barrowfield there has been no pathway from the Academy into the first team.
Celtic like to spin the stories of James Forrest, Callum McGregor and Kieran Tierney but it is over a decade since the Academy produced a regular first team player.
Tony Ralston and Mikey Johnston have played matches and won trophies but neither has ever been considered a first choice pick.
Andy Robertson famously was released by Celtic as a teenager. More recently Aaron Hickey and Lennon Miller decided that going to Hearts and Motherwell were better options to further their careers.
None of their former Celtic team-mates are making any progress in the professional game.
CELTIC AND THE FAILED ACADEMY
The Lowland League is another failure on the CV on Michael Nicholson who has barely been spotted at a match.
At the 2024 AGM Nicholson was asked to name the last player to come from the Academy and start a first team match. He didn’t know, turning the question on Brendan Rodgers. Owen Moffat was the answer.
Equally Nicholson was asked about lessons to be learned from the Montrose and Morton Academies.
He looked completely confused. Montrose knocked Celtic out of the 23/24 SFA Youth Cup at the Second Round, last season Morton won at at Lennoxtown in the First Round.
While it looks like the playing staff will be wiped out questions need to be asked about those behind the Academy with only one answer.
With the first team in dire need of emerging talent this season only Colby Donovan and Dane Murray have featured.
On loan at Partick Thistle Josh Clarke and Ben McPherson have advanced their careers playing real football. Both probably need a season on loan at SPFL Premiership level to be ready to compete for a place in the Celtic team
23 minutes 35 seconds
Dykes explained:
I heard this morning that the vast majority of the players within the B team, and many of the under 19 players have been told today that they are being freed at the end of the season and that they’ve to find a new club.
That happened this morning. I’m talking about guys that maybe involved in the Co-operative Agreement with Ayr United.
You’ve got players out there at the moment who have been in and around first team level. Jude Bonnar for example (others are Francis Turley, Kyle Ure), they’ve been told- this is it.
I don’t know if they are planning to disband the B team? This might be a prelude to an announcement that Celtic will not have a B team, I don’t know
When I got told the information I thought- what does that mean?
If you are in youth football at Celtic and you are developing players. If you are Jude Bonnar, you’ve been at Celtic since the age of 7, now 18 or 19.
If you’ve developed a player, and they’ve had the commitment to Celtic of 10/12 years this is a massive massive thing.
They are all getting told, it is like a blanket decision, ‘we are going to free you all at the end of the season’. I don’t think that has come from anyone who has worked with that kid for 12 years.
Bonnar and others will be better off getting a contract at Ayr United or elsewhere.
Six years ago Luke McCowan and Vil Sinisalo were in the Ayr United team. From 2017 to 2019 Lawrence Shankland relaunched his career at Ayr after moving from Queens Park to Aberdeen earlier in his career.
At Celtic there is absolutely no pathway from the Academy to the first team.
REPEATING THE PATTERNS OF FAILURE
Rocco Vata, Ben Summers and Owen Moffat were the top performers when Celtic entered the Lowland League in season 21/22.
That squad was bolstered by signing Bosun Lawal and Joey Dawson because the Academy didn’t have players ready to play at that level.
Over the five years playing in the Lowland League the standard of the Celtic B team has deteriorated.
Daniel Kelly showed some promise before the door was closed on him. Colby Donovan has taken his chance this season but should have had a season of Championship football in season 24/25.
Rather than being in the Celtic set up younger players can go out and get experience in the SPFL, if they are good enough they will get to the Premiership, maybe even to Celtic.
This season Celtic are in mid-table in the Lowland League. Their record is Won 12, Drew 10, Lost 11. Goals for 71, against 68. It will be one of the biggest miracles in the club’s history if anyone in the current squad ever makes a first team appearance.
The Montrose question isn’t worded accurately. Nicholson was asked what lessons could be learned from Montrose and Morton. I’d have been as well asking him the questions in Ukrainian.
Wtaf !!!!!!!
They’ve just completed building the new Barrowfield only to disband the youth set up.
How much more damage are these w**kers in the boardroom gonna inflict on the football side of the business ?
Not happy enough with allowing Doak,Kelly,Cummings,the list is unreal going back years.
They starve the Ghirls team of financial support so that Glasgow City are being funded twice as much as our ladies team and one of the main reasons the last two coaches decided to look for a gig where they felt there was a willingness from above for them to succeed.
And I don’t think I need to start on the havoc they have caused to our 1st team with their amateur hour ,football manager type interference.
F**k any season book boycott for next year, I don’t think I’ll be able to go to the games that remain this season.
The lunatics certainly are running the asylum !!!