Stephen Welsh has saw a meteoric rise from development team player to first team central defender over the past year or so. And his dad tells all in an interview with The Athletic…
In February of 2020, a young man by the name of Stephen Welsh was handed a first team debut by then Celtic manager, Neil Lennon. Welsh started against Clyde in a Scottish Cup match at Broadwood, and acquitted himself well on his first outing for the Hoops. Fast forward to October 2020, and Welsh would be given a place in the heart of the Celtic rearguard again, this time against arch rival theRangers at Paradise.
Unfortunately, Welsh and his comrades would not emerge victorious – either in this game or the rest of the season for that matter. In a season which promised so much, but garnered so little, one of the few remnants of solace would be the emergence of Welsh as a leader for the future. Unpolished and equally unfazed, Welsh provided the fans with encouragement of what the future might hold for Celtic FC.
In a recent interview with The Athletic, Welsh senior has spoken about his bhoy’s rise to fame. “It does make it extra special, watching him, he said. You can tell by his reaction when he scored against Hearts how much it meant to him. You can imagine it was quite an emotional day for all of us, to paraphrase that Tommy Burns quote, Stephen is a lucky one, a lucky supporter to find himself on the pitch and live the dream.”
“He went out and bought two season tickets on his own, to give to the family. So other members of the family can get to the games. I thought that was a nice gesture, a touch of generosity. I can tell you they’re getting passed around a lot at the moment!”
Welsh senior admits that when Stephen was younger it was Firhill he attended and not Celtic Park. He continued: “We took him to some Partick Thistle games at the start. We’re all big Celtic fans and he wanted to go watch Celtic, but I judged it as having smaller crowds to get used to football occasions, and he enjoyed it, and then I started taking him to watch Celtic.”
His dad also revealed the tenacious centre-back was not always so; Welsh initially started as a strong centre midfielder in his adolescent years. He added: “Stephen, right from day one almost, always had a ball at his feet before he started walking! I took him along to one of the amateur sides, one of the soccer sevens clubs, Redwood based in Coatbridge. He was playing against bigger and stronger boys, but he was able to hold his own. He was enjoying it and as the weeks and months passed it was evident he was pretty good at it.”
“He would be running games at that stage, simply because of his technique and pace, he could pass a ball. The positional thing is funny, because he started as a midfielder, and I saw him as a midfielder if I was honest, but his coach saw him as a Celtic centre-half, he saw something I couldn’t, that he could use his pace and ability on the ball well.”
After Celtic’s gutsy display at the weekend up at Pittodrie, Stephen’s father also acknowledged the necessity of winning at Celtic. Speaking about his son’s display of earlier years in a youth final (2016), he said: “That game was funny because Rangers were a better team at that point with better players, but there were a number of less-spoken about Celtic players, like Stephen, who went out and won Celtic the trophy that day.”
“It’s not always about winning but it is when you get to that level. If you want to be a Celtic player, it does get to be about winning. Not only do you have to win, but you also have to win in a certain style.”
Celtic will have to turn in more performances like Sunday if we have any chance of wrestling back this SPFL title. However, with young Stephen Welsh at the helm, a player awash in Celtic culture, we are definitely in good hands going forward.
I hope to see Stephen back in the side before too long!
Paul Gillespie
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