Having lost promising star Ben Doak to Liverpool last season and before that top talent from the Celtic Academy to the likes of Bayern Munich and Manchester City there was an interesting question put to Ange Postecolgou yesterday concerning Rocco Vata, the latest young Celtic talent to emerge, who has already been linked with a move away to a handful of clubs, presumably perked by the hugely successful start Doak has made at the Liverpool Academy wearing their iconic number 7 jersey.
Ben Doak applauds the Celtic support after the 3-0 win over theRangers
The question was something like this. Rocco Vata is the latest of our talented young players to be linked away from the club. Already we’ve lost several to Liverpool, Manchester City and Bayern Munich. How do we keep our talents?
How do we help them progress to the first team? Should we look at sending them out on loan as a pathway that Callum McGregor used? And this is something that Mark Lawwell did at his previous job?
“I am closely linked with them and follow their progress. All we can do is try to provide a pathway. We have lost a few, but we also have Ralston, McGregor and Forrest, who are living, breathing examples of if you stay at this football club, then you can have a pretty good career.
“It is not like we have a set formula and we deal with each situation individually. Like I said, this year, we have closely aligned the B team with the first team, so they are training up at Lennoxtown.
“I talk to the coaches every day, I am aware of the processes every day. We feel confident we can provide a pathway to becoming Celtic footballers in the near future,” Ange Postecoglou said.