Aberdeen’s fight over transfer compensation should matter to every Celtic supporter. The club has already watched a string of academy talents head south, often for returns that barely reflected years of development work.
While the Dons are the club making the argument publicly, Celtic have experienced the same frustration through the departures of academy talents to English football.
This is not an Aberdeen problem. It is a Scottish football problem.
Academy players are leaving Celtic at an unprecedented rate…
Aberdeen’s argument deserves Celtic’s support
Speaking about the issue, Aberdeen academy director Stuart Glennie made it clear the club is not trying to prevent young players from pursuing opportunities elsewhere.
He said: “Brexit has changed things, because clubs in England are looking more and more at Scotland.
“I think back to when I was playing in my younger days as well. Rangers and Celtic had coaching centres in this area, so it’s not a new development.
“You can moan about that competition that’s out there, but it’s a sign people are looking at your players as good players.
“It happens, but there’s things happening right now in Scotland with regards to compensation that we’re trying to change.
“There might be players that leave our club and go for money, but we just want to make sure that the guidelines and the rules in place make sure that we are compensated properly.
“In Scotland, the compensation rule for players moving club to club isn’t what it should be.
“We want to keep players in Scottish football, but the club is a business as well. We’re just trying to make the system fairer.
“It’s not about trying to hold clubs to ransom for players, it’s just you’ve put a lot of time and effort into these guys as we want them to go and play for Aberdeen’s first team.
“Some of them might bypass that and go to an English club or whatever, we understand that.
“But the compensation and the potential money that’s there for players going cross-border, I think it’s something that maybe needs to be increased.”
That is a reasonable position. Clubs spend years developing young players and should receive fair recognition when those players move on.
Celtic know exactly what Aberdeen are talking about
Celtic supporters do not need convincing that this issue exists. The club has watched highly-rated academy prospects leave for England despite significant investment in their development.
The scale of the issue becomes clearer when you look at the number of academy players Celtic have lost under the current system.
- Barry Hepburn (Bayern Munich after leaving Celtic as a teenager).
- Daniel Cummings (recently moved south after contract issues).
- Dara Jikiemi (reported Liverpool move with compensation due to Celtic).
- Ben Doak (Liverpool).
- Rocco Vata (Watford).
- Vincent Angelini (Watford)
- Leo Hjelde (Leeds United)
- Rory Mahady (Leeds United)
Doak’s move to Liverpool was the most prominent example, while Vata’s departure reinforced the challenge facing Scottish clubs trying to retain their best young talent.
Doak’s compensation package was reportedly worth around £600,000 when he left Celtic in 2022. Just three years later, Liverpool sold the winger to Bournemouth in a deal worth up to £25m. The contrast underlines why clubs such as Aberdeen believe the current system undervalues youth development.
No club should expect to keep every prospect. That is not the argument Aberdeen are making. The argument is that when players do leave, the system should better reflect the work that has gone into producing them.
On this issue, Celtic and Aberdeen are on the same side. Scottish football benefits when clubs are encouraged to invest in youth development, and a fairer compensation structure would help achieve exactly that.
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