Celtic’s pre-season US Tour was a full-blown success both on and off the park this summer.
Off the park, the club embarked on a class charitable effort after donating $10,000 to three local charities at every stop of the tour.
On it, Brendan Rodgers oversaw three excellent wins as Celtic saw off DC United, Man City and Chelsea to return to Scotland unbeaten and ready for the season ahead.
Whilst the likes of Nicolas Kuhn and Matt O’Riley stole the show in the States, Peter Grant has named three Celtic academy youngsters who impressed Rodgers with their efforts in the three Stateside victories.
Celtic youngsters ‘catch the eye’ of Brendan Rodgers
Grant was the co-commentator on Celtic TV for all three fixtures and got to see first-hand the performance of the team but was particularly impressed with the performance of three academy players who Rodgers took on the US Tour.
Grant said [The Go Radio Football Show], “When you go on a tour like that, what you’ve got to do to the manager is catch his eye because he doesn’t get to see as often as they used to probably do in our game because there’s so many substitutes nowadays.
“But young left back, Matthew Anderson, I thought was excellent. I thought he had done really, really well in the games when he was called upon, whether he came on as a substitute or started.
“He was out on loan as Admira Wacker last year in Austria but I thought he was outstanding in the games.
“Then you look at right back was Colby Donovan, when I saw him, he looked leggy, good, wanted to get forward, played like a right fullback.
“Then there was a young boy, Francis Turley, who sort of played as a sort of ten and got in about it.
“They all impacted the games when I was watching them. They catch your eye. They never had that fear and they defended well, they attacked well and did things with a purpose.
“It will be interesting to see what happens with them now if they go back out on loan or do they play a part moving forward.”
Like Grant, I am sure much of the Celtic support will be keen to see how these players fare next season under Rodgers.
In my opinion, Anderson is the player who has the best chance of making the first-team breakthrough. With Rodgers yet to add another left-back to the squad, the Celtic boss may well see the 21-year-old as the perfect understudy to Taylor.
Turley and Donovan will likely continue their development in the Celtic B team but there is no doubt if all three continue their rapid development, they could become important Celtic first-team players in the future.
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