The indictment of the current pathway at Celtic has reached a tipping point, and the recent assessment from the Open Goal panel serves as a harrowing wake-up call.
Gordon Dalziel has suggested that a young Celtic prospect watching the current first team should simply ‘go and get a set of golf clubs’ because their careers are going nowhere at Parkhead.
It highlights a systemic failure that can no longer be ignored. The suggestion is as brutal as it is accurate: the bridge between the Celtic B-team and the senior squad has been dismantled.
As James McFadden and Paul Slane noted, the struggle to even pick a functioning front three – concluding that Daizen Maeda is essentially the only quality option through the middle – exposes a terrifying lack of quality.
However, as Si Ferry rightly pointed out, the issue isn’t a lack of talent; it is the catastrophic ‘bad recruitment’ that has seen seven or eight players signed who aren’t good enough.
What should be done to stop so many Celtic youngsters leaving?
Have Celtic’s academy players been underused this season?
These average senior professionals are doing more than just draining the wage bill; they are physically blocking the pathway with their abject performances.
With the training ground currently bloated by first-team players who offer little to the matchday squad, the club’s brightest youngsters aren’t even getting the chance to train with the seniors, according to Ferry on Open Goal.
Until Celtic addresses this recruitment gridlock, the ‘golf club’ analogy will remain a grim reality for every teenager at Lennoxtown.
James McFadden: “They are struggling to pick a front three. You probably have to pick Maeda through the middle.”
Paul Slane: “There is nobody else.”
Derek Ferguson: “There is no young player coming through that system? Celtic and Rangers, or when you go to the big clubs, the Hibs and Hearts. There have to be youngsters coming through.”
Gordon Dalziel: “I agree with that. I was watching that game when they brought the sub on right for Celtic. I was thinking: see if I was a young boy and I was in that U21 league, or whatever it may be.
“And I was sitting watching that. I would turn around and say to my family, ‘Go and get me a set of golf clubs. My football career is done.’”
Si Ferry: “See all this bad recruitment, and signing seven players who aren’t good enough. Young players aren’t even getting a chance to train with the first team now because they have got that many first-team players training.”
Colby Donovan is an example to all
One man who has had a breakthrough campaign at Celtic is Colby Donovan, and he is an example that the young guns probably should have been handed more of a chance this term.
It all stemmed from Alistair Johnston’s injury issues, but whenever Donovan has played, he has proven to be a breath of fresh air.
When you look at how proven players of Celtic’s past have declined, and summer and January signings have just fallen on their heads, you just wonder how academy players would have benefited from the exposure some of these senior players have been handed.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
