Celtic are through to the knockout stages of the Champions League.
On Wednesday night, the champions of Scotland made the trip to the Midlands for a mouthwatering and first-ever meeting with Aston Villa.
It was a brilliant occasion for all involved, yes, Celtic suffered a defeat at Villa, but given the circumstances, everyone should hold their heads up high.
Brendan Rodgers had to play a depleted XI from the get-go. Kyogo Furuhashi had left for Rennes, Daizen Maeda was suspended, Jota had just joined, Alex Valle had his loan spell cut short and Cameron Carter-Vickers was injured.
Then things became tougher in the second half when players started to cramp up and suffer niggling injuries in what was a hard-fought and all-action contest.
The good thing to come out of all of this was Rodgers bringing on the Celtic young guns, including striker Daniel Cummings for his debut.
Celtic told to pick Daniel Cummings amid striker shortage
After Kyogo’s exit, the man leading the line for Celtic is Adam Idah, as he will be hoping his brace at Villa Park does him the world of good.
But, after that, there isn’t a senior out-and-out striker for the manager to pick from and Stephen McGinn wants Cummings to earn more game time, as he told Go Radio.
The boyhood Celtic fan shared that the champions have enough chances to ‘introduce one or two youngsters’, especially with the team heading towards the title with a cigar in their hand.
“I think they need to bring in a striker,” said McGinn. “I am not sure what’s happening with young, Daniel Cummings. I thought it was great to see him come on for his debut.
“He scored a lot of goals for the B team. I would like to see, if there isn’t going to be any strikers coming in, a lot more. I think there are games when Celtic have the games won, where you can maybe introduce one or two youngsters.
“Brendan Rodgers has a massive squad that he needs to manage. A squad full of internationals. But just one or two opportunities to get the young players out and a bit of experience before it gets to these big games in really crucial moments.”
Will Cummings leave Celtic for West Ham United?
Go back to Rocco Vata and Ben Doak, if Cummings leaves Celtic, ahead of his contract expiring, then he won’t be the first young gun to go down this road.
The 18-year-old is expected to sign a pre-contract agreement with West Ham United, who recently appointed Graham Potter as their manager, as reported by the Daily Record.
From a financial perspective, you can’t deny a player like that a move to the English top-flight, even though, by Rodgers picking him, he is proving that he wants him to stay.
That will be further proven when Celtic take on managerless Motherwell in the Premiership on Sunday afternoon.
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