The 2 Celtic youngsters Ange wants to see an impact from in pre-season

By David Walton

May 22, 2022

Celtic youngsters Liam Shaw and Osaze Urhoghide have already spoken with Ange Postecoglou about making an impact ahead of pre-season this year.

Shaw and Urhoghide arrived last summer but failed to break into the Celtic first-team in the first half of the 2021/22 campaign. Unsurprisingly, Ange sent both out on loan with Shaw departing for Motherwell as Urhoghide left for Belgium with KV Oostende.

Both men are now scheduled to come back ahead of pre-season as supports get excited about who could potentially breakthrough next term.

And it looks as though Ange is expecting both of the Hoops youngsters to make an impression. This comes after the pair both had individual conversations with the manager before their loan spells.

Shaw stated before he went to Fir Park that the plan was for him to go out on loan before coming back and playing a bigger role in the first-team this season [Daily Record].

Urhoghide, meanwhile, claimed that Ange told him that he still had a big future at Celtic Park and that it was still the defender’s goal to make a career of it in Glasgow [Football Scotland].

Liam Shaw and Osaze Urhoghide – where do they fit in under Ange at Celtic?

Both men had varying success in each of their respective loan spells. Urhoghide grew into his role with Oostende and started their final 6 league games of the campaign. He made a positive impact during his time there, which probably couldn’t be said regarding Shaw.

The former Sheffield Wednesday man struggled to break into Graham Alexander’s starting XI. He didn’t start any of the Steelmen’s final 14 games of the season and instead had to settle for minimal cameo roles from the bench. It won’t have been anywhere near what Shaw would’ve expected.

Granted, players don’t need to have successful loan spells for their parent clubs to revive them. Just look at Anthony Ralston who came out of nowhere to become a major Parkhead success after a failed loan at St Johnstone.

It’s difficult to say which youngster has the better opportunity next year however. Urhoghide can operate at both right-back and centre-back. His favoured position is the latter, but minutes will be hard to come by if Carl Starfelt and Cameron Carter-Vickers remain in place.

Shaw, meanwhile, has a heck of a group to try and break into if he wants to be a part of the Celtic midfield. Reo Hatate, Yosuke Ideguchi, David Turnbull, Matt O’Riley, Callum McGregor. There are more than a few top quality engine-room operators in there.

But Ange is clearly wanting to see something from both men come pre-season. It’ll be fascinating to see if they can step up.

In other news, Giorgos Giakoumakis defends Celtic comments that left Ryan Jack raging