Jack Aitchison was hugely rated as a young player at Celtic.
Ten years on, though, he is best-known as the answer to the quiz question: who is Celtic’s youngest-ever player and goalscorer?
Aged just 16 years and 71 days, he scored with his first touch in a 7-0 win against Motherwell on the final day of the 2015-16 season.
In the end, he would make just nine more senior appearances for the club. Reflecting on the summer of his departure, Aitchison has revealed that it left him ‘fuming’.
Academy players are leaving Celtic at an unprecedented rate…
Jack Aitchison: My Celtic exit hurt
Reflecting on his exit, Aitchison told the Daily Record: “Yeah, I was gutted.
“My mum and dad were on the pitch after that first game and Ronny Deila said I was going to be a first-team player. I worked really hard over the off-season.
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“Then Brendan came in. That kind of calibre of manager, I was like, ‘wow’. He was never really going to risk youngsters in his first season though.
“He went and signed Moussa Dembele and the next season Odsonne Edouard for millions of pounds.
“Brendan was good to be fair. Straight away he sat me down. I was scoring loads of goals at youth level, but he told me what I wasn’t good at.
“It’s not just about goals, you need to work hard, defend, hold it up and make unselfish runs.
“I went back with the youth team and worked on that. I was still scoring goals. I was in head of youth Chris McCart’s office at least once a week, saying, when am I going back up to the first team?
“Even at that young age, I was frustrated. I returned from a really good first loan at Forest Green and thought I was going away with the first team on pre-season.
“I didn’t get to go. And that really hurt. Boys that had stuck around at Celtic playing youth football went. But I went on loan to play first team football, did well and didn’t get to go.
“I was fuming, if I’m being honest. That’s when I realised my time was up at Celtic.
“They offered me a contract extension. But I thought, ‘if somebody’s getting a benefit from me it’ll be somebody else’.
“It was a big decision to leave but I still believe it was the right one.”
Celtic have bloated their squad with a high volume of ‘project’ signings over the last decade…
Jack Aitchison’s career since leaving Celtic
Aitchison mentions his loan at Forest Green Rovers. There, he made his mark at League Two level in England.
He left Celtic to join Barnsley, immediately moving to Stevenage on loan. After that, he returned to FGR, appearing in all 46 of their league games that season.
Aitchison returned to Scottish football with Motherwell in 2023, but didn’t last long. He has since made over 100 appearances for Exeter City.
Aged 26, he has just been relegated from League One with the Grecians.
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