Brendan Rodgers has used the early stages of pre-season to put a large clutch of Celtic youngsters through their paces in Lennoxtown training and friendly matches.
The manager used 23 players in total against Ayr United last Friday night and followed that up with opportunities for 22 to impress against Queen’s Park.
The second half of both matches has seen a large influx of largely unknown and untested youth options from the club’s B team and U18s set-up.
There was joy for one of those teenagers on Wednesday night. Francis Turley came into the match as a substitute and made an excellent impact, scoring Celtic’s sixth and final goal of the 6-4 victory against the Spiders.
The Belfast-born 18-year-old is a rising talent in the Celtic B side and could now get more opportunities in the senior mix after impressing Rodgers.
Brendan Rodgers singles out Francis Turley for praise
Speaking to Celtic TV after the game, Rodgers enthused: “There were some pleasing moments in the game as well. None more so than in the second half with young Francis Tuley coming into the game.
“I’ve only seen him in the last few days and you can see he’s a football player. He does some wonderful things with the ball and he has a natural instinct to get into the box. I was really pleased for him in that final half hour.”
Turley played 16 times for Celtic B last season having signed for the Bhoys from Glentoran back in 2022.
A Northern Ireland youth international who has represented his country at U19 level, Turley will now be a name to watch within the Celtic set-up.
The likelihood is he continues making progress with the B side over the coming months but the young midfielder will have done his chances of making it onto the plane for Celtic’s USA tour no harm at all.
At the very least he’s caught the eye of Rodgers and that’s the aim for all of these young players at this stage of the summer.
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