Liam Scales has certainly had a mixed time of it since moving to Celtic. A goalscoring debut when he came on as a substitute in Celtic’s 3-0 away win to Dundee United should have been a catalyst for the Irish defender to kick on and build on a good start to his Celtic career.
But it never really happened for him. And in truth, it wasn’t really his fault. The competition he faced for a place in the first team in spite of his versatility was frustrating for the then 22-year-old.
With Greg Taylor in good form at lefty back and Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt creating a solid partnership in the centre of defence, Scales’ chances were always going to be few and far between.
So in his second season, he decided to move on loan to Aberdeen. And what a successful spell it was for him. An initial slow start to his Dons career quickly materialised into the Celtic defender becoming a regular first-team starter and integral to the Pittodrie team‘s push into the top half of the table.
Aberdeen eventually finished third in the league and qualified for Europe and Scales was being tipped to make his loan move permanent.
But all that chatter has gone quiet since the arrival of Brendan Rodgers. Scales is now part of Celtic’s pre-season preparations and after today’s recent transfer update from Aberdeen, it looks like his chance to join Barry Robson’s team has gone.
The Press and Journal have reported that Serbian defender Slobodan Rubezic, is closing in on a move to Pittodrie and after Robson added Rhys Williams and Nicky Devlin (who can also slot into the left centre back position) earlier this summer, it seems as though Scales’ window of opportunity to join Aberdeen permanently has gone.
However, all may not be lost. Scales could still have a future at Celtic. Brendan Rodgers has already commented that he intends to assess the versatile Irish defender during the pre-season preparations to see where he would fit into his plans so it seems that there is still time for Scales to impress the manager and salvage his Celtic career.
In other news, The last time Celtic faced Yokohama F Marinos and why it left Shunsuke Nakamura ashamed
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