Celtic winger Rocco Vata looks set to depart the club in January with Atalanta keen on signing the player. The Serie A side are reportedly prepared to pay Celtic £400k for Vata in lieu of compensation as the Celtic Academy product looks set to move on.
According to Italian publication Calcio Mercato, Atalanta are keen on signing the right-sided midfielder, who is entering his final six months with the Scottish Champions.
The reports states that he would join Atalanta’s second team with a view to continuing his development, which may be more attractive than the current set up at Celtic.
It appears that the player and the club are keen to part ways as the Ireland U21 seeks further first-team opportunities, having shown good consistency for the Celtic second team. Vata has 18 appearances for Celtic B this season as well as an impressive haul of 11 goals to his name. However, he has made just four appearances for the First Team in his time with the club.
Vata joined CAA Base Agency in the summer, which indicated that he would be likely to move on in the summer but no deal was forthcoming leaving him to be deployed in the Lowland Leagues by Stephen McManus and Darren O’Dea.
When Celtic were short of attacking options, Vata wasn’t included in the first team and it was clear that the player would be moving on. When guys like Mikey Johnston, Marco Tilio and Yang weren’t getting games, it was unlikely that Vata would be even close to first team involvement, which is a shame as there is obviously a talented player there.
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Shame to lose another decent prospect, but it brings to mind a question I’d like to ask senior management at Celtic – and other clubs, of course…..
“What is the point of an Academy? The first team players, of the last decade, who have been there wouldn’t take the fingers of two hands to count. If it’s a business, it’s a disaster, measuring return (transfer money saved) against running costs. These are young boys who, presumably, want to just play football, but they seem to end up playing even less than they would with a school team, or in the juvenile ranks. I say liberate them, let them play somewhere, every week and develop from there. I certainly would, actively, discourage my grandson from joining ANY top league team’s academy”
Spot on Mr Duffy , its so bleedin obvious so why do we do it , i think its just tradition its the way its allways been so we just carry on doing it ,despite it being a waste of our resources , its one of many traditional things in football that needs scrapped IMO , like talking to the m.s.m and placing them as more important that the fan media , Hail hail .