Celtic have had a lot of youth players featuring in recent times. The stalwarts of the side such as Forrest and McGregor were once youth players. Meanwhile, the likes of Tierney, Ralston, McGeouch, Dembele, Frimpong, Henderson, Johnston etc. have all featured in recent seasons.
The financial landscape of modern football demands that we continue to progress in this area. However, the coronavirus pandemic has brought the issue to greater attention. The exits of Johnny Hayes and Jozo Simunovic shows that Celtic must be cutting costs. These players have expressed their surprise at departing the club, particularly Hayes, who understood that he was part of Lennon’s plans going forward. It’s perhaps not wise for Celtic to have squad players on decent money with the recent financial impact of Covid-19 so they have acted accordingly.
For me, this just brings the issue into the spotlight ahead of time. I have read of all these great players coming through the youth ranks in the 70s and 80s. The big thing was that these players were given the chance to breakthrough on a larger scale than the odd one or two getting through. I’ve often felt that it would be advantageous to promote youth players to bulk out the squad, over paying high wages for squad players.
In recent seasons we’ve seen Eboue Kouassi make a handful of appearances on a decent wage (average first team player’s wage is believed to be £16,000 per week). In addition, this has been the case with Bolingoli, Bauer, Gordon, Morgan and so many others. With cost cutting, and Hayes and Simunovic leaving, Celtic still have 26 players in the first team squad. Therefore, now seems an ideal opportunity to promote youth players such as Stephen Welsh. The risk is minimal because, as mentioned, we still have 26 players in the squad. However, it means we can utilise these young players if and when required, giving them opportunities and not costing us a fortune in wages.
Would Stephen Welsh do much worse than Jozo? He didn’t do too bad on his debut against Hamilton. Celtic are a dominant team in domestic football and thus it’s easier for a youngster to make that step up in defence, generally speaking.
Would Ewan Henderson do much worse than Kouassi? Is Aitchison any worse than Bayo?
I would suggest not and it may be something for us to return to, giving those young players a chance in the manner that we did during the 60s, 70s and 80s. Certainly, the notion can do no harm in terms of keeping our young stars rather than losing them to Bayern Munich as we have done on two occasions recently.
