One question that hasn’t been doing the rounds recently is what on earth is going on with young Jack Aitchison?
The Hoops prodigy has been around the scene now for the last several years. He’s made three appearances in total for the club. The first of which seen him score on his debut against Motherwell.
Since then, however, Aitchison has only been seen in two forgetful appearances against Partick Thistle and Hearts. Those came almost two years ago, however.
In more recent times, Aitchison has been hanging around with the youths. And whilst the arrival of Damien Duff is going to be a huge boost for the youths at Parkhead, Aitchison shouldn’t be around to see it.
That’s because, at 18-years of age, the youngster needs to start plying his trade on loan.
It’s not as if he hasn’t already tried it. Aitchison spent an ill-fated period on loan at Dumbarton earlier this season. But after making four appearances in the month of September, he was sent back in bizarre circumstances.
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To sum up – it was a failed first loan spell away from Parkhead. He had barely any impact on the four matches, and failed to score any goals – winning just one of the games.
But it’s now imperative that he gets back out of his comfort zone and into the senior game once again.
A youngster with the world at his feet
Aitchison is a youngster who could have the world at his feet. He’s scored in several Glasgow Derby youth matches, as well as netting against the likes of Bayern Munich in the UEFA Youth League.
With the striking options at Parkhead, however, he won’t see any game-time this season. At worst, he has four other players ahead of him in the pecking order. When Leigh Griffiths returns, it’ll be five.
He needs to start making a case for his big career breakthrough. Granted, some such as Mikey Johnston and Anthony Ralston didn’t need loan spells before making their mark at Parkhead.
Fortunately for the pair, however, they’re playing in positions with not much cover. Their opportunities have been a lot easier to obtain compared to Aitchison.
Therefore, it’s down to the youngster to really catch Rodgers’ eye away from Parkhead.
The longer he stays in Glasgow, the more troubling a time he’ll have trying to break into the team.
Fans want to start seeing the best out of Aitchison. But in order to do that, he’ll need to go out for a second and third loan spell and really kick on.
Until then, he’ll forever be the wee boy we’re still waiting on to push on.