Celtic fans wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Ben Doak is receiving rave reviews after his dazzling display for Scotland U21s recently.
The Liverpool winger, who came through the Celtic academy and played two games under Ange Postecoglou, made his competitive Scotland U21 debut this week and starred against European Championship finalists Spain.
It saw one Celtic fan express his frustration at Ben Doak moving to Liverpool in 2022, but Simon Donnelly made it clear that it’s ‘difficult’ for clubs in Scotland to reject such lucrative offers that come from the English Premier League.
As Donnelly added, ‘there is something special brewing’ with the all-action winger and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he gets called up to Steve Clarke’s Scotland side sooner rather than later, as he told Clyde 1 Superscoreboard.
Since leaving Parkhead, Doak has repped Liverpool on six occasions, including a 13-minute substitute appearance away at Chelsea on the opening day of this season.
And given that the highly-rated teenager was in the limelight recently, it got people talking about him.
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“You look at the likes of Billy Gilmour at Rangers,” said Donnelly. “It’s difficult when these clubs come knocking with the money in the English Premier League.
“I covered the two or three games that Ben (Doak) came on for Celtic. There was one of the games Postecoglou put him on. It was the game Abada scored late on (Dundee United). The game was 0-0 and he put Ben Doak on, so that suggested that he was rated highly.
“But, for whatever reason, he has found himself down at Liverpool. I believe he is enjoying it. I think Scotland will benefit from this. I think there is something special brewing with the kid. To break into that team.
“You look at the five or six players who are his area of the pitch that play for Liverpool and he is knocking on the door already at 17.”
Doak will play for Scotland
It’s just a matter of time, and in truth, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he is picked for Euro 2024, with Scotland just needing to iron out some small details before their golden ticket to Germany is confirmed.
It needs to be remembered that Doak made his debut for Celtic against Dundee United, when the scores were still 0-0, before he earned a few more minutes against Rangers that saw the Bhoys go top of the league, at the time.
You just don’t hand minutes to a player like this for no reason, there is some serious quality there and it’s a reason why Jurgen Klopp is giving him minutes now.
Yes, it would have been great to keep him on board because you would imagine that he would have had a number of starts under his belt by now at Parkhead.
But as mentioned, the finances between the Scottish and English game will never be bridged again, so these deals are just going to become more common.