It’s starting to look more and more as if the youngsters at Celtic won’t get their big chance this season.
The Hoops have failed to wrap up the Premiership title in recent weeks. Despite building up an initial 13-point gap between themselves and Rangers with seven games remaining, that’s been slashed down to nine.
Celtic can win the league if they beat Kilmarnock and Rangers fail to beat Aberdeen this weekend. But the most realistic scenario is that the Hoops win the Premiership on their third-last game of the season at Aberdeen with just a point needed.
Neil Lennon just wants it done and dusted. If we win it eventually then no harm done apparently. But, unfortunately, this is likely to rob deserving youngsters of their chance in the first-team before the end of the campaign.
Sure, Lennon could still throw them in, but is it likely he would risk it whilst the league isn’t yet won? You would instead expect our strongest team to face both Kilmarnock and Aberdeen in the next two fixtures.
If the league is won, that doesn’t mean chances are going to arrive. Our next fixture will be Rangers at Ibrox, and, yet again, would you really expect big changes for that? Regardless of whether we win the league or not by then, Celtic need to make a statement in Govan.
Trophy day is the best bet
That then ticks us over to the final game of the Premiership season at home to Hearts. Granted, Lennon could throw one or two in if the title is sewn up there. But we’ve traditionally put a strong team out on trophy day to put on a performance for the supporters. Youngsters like Jack Aitchison have benefited from coming on during trophy days, however, so that remains a possibility.
But it looked as though Lennon was set to give the youngsters and youth players a chance. He spoke about the Celtic first-team stars going away for a break after the title was won.
If we had beaten Livingston and Hibernian, Lennon could easily have given others a chance to impress against both Kilmarnock and Aberdeen.
Instead, any window of opportunity is likely to have been slammed shut due to our own inefficiency.
The likes of Armstrong Oko-flex, Wallace Duffy, and even Karamoko Dembele have all done well at reserve-team level. But there are a bunch of them in the reserve squad who easily deserve a chance at some stage. But just where do you now throw them in?
It’s a shame that their chance to impress looks dead. Hopefully, Celtic can wrap up the title against Aberdeen and we can see a couple of youngsters against Hearts. But don’t hold your breath. The players have let the youths down in recent weeks.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
