The lack of youth progress at Celtic has been a massive disappointment at the football club for some time now.
The creation of the Lennoxtown training centre in 2008 was supposed to be a big step towards sustained improvement in youth integration. However, since its opening 13 years ago, how many players have truly come through to become key players at Celtic?
Kieran Tierney is one. James Forrest is another. Add Callum McGregor to that pair also. You’ll rack your brain trying to think of any more highly successful talents.
Yes, we have hope for the likes of Mikey Johnston and Stephen Welsh, both of whom have broken into first-team contention over the last couple of years. But that’s hardly much of a return from an academy that has had thousands of youngsters come through and not make the cut.
Much of the problem isn’t that these players aren’t good enough at times. The problem is the supporters never get to find out due to a lack of game-time at the club. A lack of trust or a lack of bravery perhaps.
Celtic have shown no urgency with youth development
Sure, this is Celtic. Youth integration is a difficult thing as there’s no real simple time to ease them in. Not at a club where winning on a weekly basis means everything. But some of the biggest clubs in Europe have some of the most heralded academies in the world. Clubs such as Bayern Munich and Barcelona have no issue bringing through their own talents and making them good enough for their own Elite level.
Why can’t we do that at Celtic? There are plenty of talents still waiting for an opportunity. The likes of Karamoko Dembele, Luca Connell, Adam Montgomery. Too often these players have been left on the sidelines twiddling their thumbs whilst some of the senior stars have struggled in their own positions.
Looking at the above graph first shown on 67HailHail YouTube channel, it’s troubling. Dembele, Armstrong Oko-Flex, Ewan Henderson, and Montgomery all have talent that needs to be given a chance at the next level. Between them, only 203 minutes were dished out. That’s only just over two games of football between them.
Thankfully, Postecoglou appears ready to turn this around at Celtic. He seems ready to invest in the youth talent that’s clearly there and make the pathway to the senior side a lot clearer.
When he was first appointed, he stated the following in his first interview with Celtic TV:
“I’m a big believer that if you can produce homegrown talent and players who have come through the club, for the player himself it has extra meaning to representing that football club. And I think even to the supporters because they see one of their own out there and I think that’s very important.
“The first step with that is to make sure that the talent is being produced and nurtured at the club. I want to get really involved with the academy process as well and see where they’re at. They’ve produced some fantastic footballers in recent times and my job is to give those footballers an opportunity and make them realise their potential.
“For me age is irrelevant. It’s about players who are really ambitious and, as I said, they want to produce something special. Our careers all end at one stage, but I’ve always felt if you can produce something that lasts well beyond your career, it makes everything you’ve done worthwhile.”
Ange Postecoglou finally looks like providing a closer focus on youth
These are comments that went down extremely well with centre-back Stephen Welsh today. 67HailHail spoke to the Celtic defender and asked him if he’d had any discussions with Postecoglou. This is what he said in reply:
“I’ve not spoken to the new manager yet but going off his interview when he first joined, it’s very promising. He mentioned he likes to bring academy players through into the first team. So I think all the academy boys looking at that – it’s a good chance to give a good impression in pre-season and start well.”
It’s something Postecoglou has a track record in. At Brisbane Roar he released a host of senior players and used his time there to integrate academy products. In the end, he would leave with two A-League titles and with his reputation bolstered.
The same goes for his time with Yokohama F.Marinos. Impressively, the new Celtic boss increased the minutes given to talents between the ages of 18 and 21 five-fold between 2017 and 2019, from just 600 minutes to over 3000 minutes. It’s extremely promising.
Now, this looks like a philosophy that he’s bringing to Celtic Park. He’ll have plenty of talent to play with too considering the emerging players we have in the academy.
Finally we seem to have appointed a manager who doesn’t just say he wants to work with youth. Going by Postecoglou’s history, his actions very much back them up too.
In other news, Juventus reportedly want a defender linked with Celtic back in 2020.
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