WE broke the news earlier in the week that Scott Robertson was going to make his debut against Cluj and the young academy star can certainly very pleased with his performance in the otherwise low-key Celtic showing in the 2-0 dead rubber defeat to the Romanian Champions last night.
The 18 year old midfielder has been at Celtic for ten years so reckons that the time was right to progress to the first team and he certainly looked right at home playing alongside Olivier Ntcham in the centre of the park.
“I don’t really think I’m ahead of schedule. I always hoped I’d be playing in the first-team at an early age,” Robertson told the Media after the final group stage Europa League match, as reported by Scottish Sun.
“I’m 18, it’s not really young. You see boys in England getting their debut and playing in Europe so it was good for me to do that.
“It was brilliant. It’s good to eventually get out there. I found out I was playing around lunchtime on Wednesday and I was really excited. The team got put up on the projector and I saw my name. I was a bit taken aback, I wasn’t expecting it.
“I told my parents about three o’clock that day — I texted my dad and they were buzzing for me. I didn’t have a sleepless night, I was actually alright. It was more excitement than nerves to be honest.
“It was in my plans to get an early touch and a few early passes off to grow into the game.
“I say to everyone, it’s the intensity that’s the difference when you play with the first team or even train with them. It’s so much higher than what you get when you are playing against younger people when you are playing against men.
“But Olivier was brilliant. He was talking to me throughout the game and he was relaxing me. He said to me before the game to just do my stuff and that stood me in good stead for the rest of the game.”
The teenager received a glowing Ratings review from Sandman on The Celtic Star last night – Sandman’s Definitive Rantings – Celtic Return to Castle Dracula, ‘Once bitten, twice shy’ – and in case you missed that you can catch up HERE.
On behalf of everyone in the Academy, we would like to congratulate graduates Scott Robertson, on making his First Team debut and Karamoko Dembele, on becoming the youngest player to represent Celtic in a European tie. #rolemodels
— Celtic FC Academy (@CelticFCAcademy) December 12, 2019
