Celtic fans must not expect too much, too soon from David Turnbull. The Bhoys are widely expected to complete the signing of the 19-year-old sensation after having a bid accepted by Motherwell on Wednesday.
Turnbull may have netted 15 goals from midfield in a terrific breakthrough season for the Steelman, but Hoops fans shouldn’t put too much pressure on his shoulders.
Young Scottish talents often take some time to adapt to their new surroundings. Let’s take a look a three recent examples of men who took their time to get going, before becoming Celtic stars.
Scott Brown
It seems strange to think back to a time when Scott Brown wasn’t a Celtic player. The midfielder moved from Hibernian for a record fee of £4.4million 12 years ago. He took his time to get going in the Hoops, originally playing on the right of midfield.
Brown had personal problems and injuries to contend with in his early years. He was made captain by Tony Mowbray in 2010 and has not really looked back since. The 33-year-old has now played 525 times for Celtic and won 19 major honours. He’s turned out to be a bargain buy.
Stuart Armstrong
Armstrong is perhaps the most similar signing to Turnbull. The midfielder was seen as the next big thing in Scottish football after spending five profitable years at Dundee United.
Celtic signed Armstrong in 2015 for around £2million. He got off to an instant start, scoring in his first match against Partick Thistle. Things got tougher for Armstrong from then on, though, and it wasn’t until Brendan Rodgers came in that he moved to the next level.
Celtic sold the midfielder for £7million last summer, making a tidy profit in the process.
Ryan Christie
The 24-year-old is another example of a youngster coming from a provincial club to Celtic. Christie joined from Inverness Caley Thistle as a 20-year-old. He took some time breaking into the first-team, spending loan spells back at Caley as well as Aberdeen.
Again it was Rodgers who paved the way for Christie. His breakthrough moment arrived in last year’s Betfred Cup semi-final victory over Hearts. Christie leapt from the bench at half-time to play a key role in the winning of the watch – scoring the final goal in the 3-0 victory.
He’s now seen as one of our top talents going into next season.
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