Mitchel Frame has reflected on leaving Celtic, rejecting Liverpool and waiting for his breakthrough at Aberdeen.
The left-back was handed his senior debut by Brendan Rodgers, entering a Champions League clash with Feyenoord aged just 17.
However, this was to be his only appearance for the club, as he failed to make a single matchday squad in the following 18 months.
Frame rejected an offer from Liverpool to join Aberdeen, and has now reflected on this decision as well as his Celtic exit.
Who will be the next Celtic youngster to break into the first-team?
Mitchel Frame on Celtic exit and ‘frustrating’ Aberdeen wait
Asked about the Anfield offer by the Daily Record, Frame said: “Yes, [Liverpool] was obviously on the cards, but I felt like I needed men’s football instead of just playing at the 23s.
“I feel if you come to men’s football, you develop a lot quicker and a lot faster. I felt like I needed that challenge of first team. I’d been playing at under-18s and B team with Celtic.
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“I just feel like there’s only so much you can do at that age, where you can only develop so long. I feel like I needed to play first team football.”
On the five-month wait he faced to make his Dons debut, Frame said: “It was frustrating.
“It could get difficult at times because it felt like sometimes you’re maybe just training for no end goal. You just have to stick at it and just make sure you’re ready at all times.”
“I would say to [Jimmy Thelin about getting a chance], but I didn’t want it to seem as if I was too desperate.
“So I just kept my head down and kept working hard. He just said that it was to develop me as a player because I was young.
“He said he’d seen a lot of potential, but he just said that I need to keep training hard and keep going and my chance would eventually come, but I don’t know.
“It was tough because five months in and I hadn’t really had a chance.”
Do Celtic need to offer more first-team chances to their academy players?
Celtic’s academy continues to lose talent
Dara Jikiemi’s move to Liverpool looks set to be the latest example of the Hoops’ academy bleeding talent to the Premier League’s benefit.
Ben Gannon-Doak stands as the biggest success story of young players leaving Parkhead for moves down south, by far.
But for every Gannon-Doak, there are plenty more examples of young Celts being discarded by England’s giants, even after excelling at under-21 level.
Despite this, the trend has continued in the last few years: Aidan Borland to Aston Villa, Daniel Cummings to West Ham, Rory Mahady to Leeds… the list goes on.
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