Erskine Rennie is the latest player from the Celtic Academy to decide to turn professional with an EPL club.
In this case the club is Fulham but the deal follows a depressing template that shows no sign of stopping.
If anything the flow of young players out of Celtic seems to be accelerating.
At the age of 16 players can be offered a professional contract.
The Celtic u-16 side seems to be the showcase for English clubs to monitor as they decide which players they will offer pro terms to.
Recently Rennie’s team-mate Dara Jikiemi joined Liverpool. The player names vary, as does the destination club but the template is very similar. All the way through to Fabrizio Romano announcing the move.
Celtic need to get the Scottish reserve league back in place (even if they have to fund it themselves).
Or just shut down the academy ASAP as it’s now officially pointless .
We lose EVERY young prospect before we have even heard of them.
We offer no viable route to the first team— markbradley (@back2theegg) July 11, 2026
Since Liam Morrison left Celtic in 2019 the flow of players leaving has been constant.
Neil Lennon used Morrison in the first team for pre-season friendlies but that wasn’t enough to prevent him from joining Bayern Munich.
Morrison is now at QPR, he had a loan spell at Aberdeen last season and is cutting out a decent career for himself.
THE CELTIC ACADEMY EXODUS
Barry Hepburn followed Morrison to Bayern, recently he signed for Stirling Albion which is typical of the way of youth development.
Ben Gannon-Doak is the most high profile exit from Celtic. Despite two first team appearances, including a Glasgow Derby he opted to join Liverpool.
Money is clearly an incentive to move to England or Germany but the pathway to the Celtic first team is hard to establish.
At Celtic Rennie could have played in the CAS u-17 or u-19 league which consists of nine clubs.
Alternatively he could have played in the Lowland League West or been loaned out to an SPFL club as part of a Co-Operation Agreement.
Last season Celtic teamed up with Ayr United but had no Co-Operation deals with clubs in League 1 or League 2.
Until another Kieran Tierney plugs the gap from Academy to first team regular it seems certain that more young players will follow the Rennie route out of Celtic.
We see how the suits treat seasoned pros, do u think they treat these youngsters any better when it comes to securing their services?
Can just imagine the how the negotiations go….yeah we deffo want u, we see huge potential, so here’s an 8 yr contract at minimum wage…….unfortunately the potential they see is the same they see in every signing, get them as cheap as possible and sell for as much as possible as quickly as possible.
Is it any wonder they or any other players walk?
Brexit has ensured that the supply of under 18 year olds from the EU has stopped for all UK clubs. U18s cannot sign for clubs outside the EU. So in order for wealthy English clubs to keep their academies stocked they’re hoovering up talent from other less resourced UK clubs.
The flip side, is young Irish players can continue to develop and more importantly, play football, at least until they’re 18. Irish clubs are benefiting from record fees being paid, and the player continues to play on ‘loan’ until.his 18th birthday.
All Scottish clubs are suffering from the livestock farming of the EPL clubs academies.
Very well put Ciaran .
It’s brexit people duped into thinking we can keep our countries Identity lost that years ago thank god back to promising kids leaving how many make it 1 out of how many 100 I’d put another zero even more they lose there hunger for fame and money good luck to those kids but this is there start of a downward spiral