It’s hard enough for most youngsters to break into Celtic’s first team due to the quality in the squad and how important every game is, but it’s almost impossible for goalkeepers to break through.
It’s a position you really don’t want to rotate so unless there’s an injury crisis or the senior keepers are severely out of form, there’s never going to be a chance to play.
Ross Doohan finds himself in that position where he’s shown his talents over seven different loan spells, and it appears an eighth could be on the way with interest from St Johnstone and Doncaster Rovers:
Saints need a new number one after losing Zander Clark for free in the summer, but they’ve also made a few permanent signings over the past year so there could also be the potential for a fee to be paid and an outright move.
Realistically, Celtic’s priority here has to be getting the best return for a player who’s highly unlikely to make it into the first team, and the interest from Doncaster might make more sense if that’s the main motivation. It would put him in the shop window in England and he would likely move on for a larger fee afterward.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that St Johnstone lost Shaun Rooney, Jamie McCart, Callum Hendry, and Zander Clark for nothing this summer so they don’t have a strong history of developing players and selling them on, so allowing him to move to Perth for a nominal fee with a high sell-on percentage would make you nervous.
Doohan is also 24 so the time has come for him to move on, and it looks like that could happen over the next few weeks.