One of the less talked about footballers at Celtic Park in recent times and with the potential for the new manager to work with is Stephen Welsh. The young Scottish defender has been on the fringes for quite some time now with Ange Postecoglou not favouring the centre-back and preferring to opt for Yuki Kobayashi and Tomoki Iwata ahead of him before he left for Spurs.
Welsh was one of the few good things to come out of the fabled Ten-in-a-row season a few years back and it really looked at the time that Celtic finally had an academy central defender we could mould into a top prospect once again. Not since John Kennedy have we arguably had a homegrown talent at the centre of defence for the club.
Stephen McManus did come through and captained the side whilst winning silverware admirably, but with the greatest of respect, neither he nor Darren O’Dea were cut out for the top of the game. I’m not saying that Stephen Welsh is at this moment in time, but with the correct development and coaching, he could far exceed that of McManus’ achievements.
Admittedly a bit on the small side for a centre-back, Welsh has to be more cute and clever when he’s facing opponents that are physically imposing, as he has been known to be overrun and bullied before. Livingston away during Ange’s first season was a particularly bad example of him being turned far too easy with simplistic, old-fashioned forward play. There are others too I’m sure supporters could mention.
But let’s protect and preserve the kid’s confidence and potential. Look at what Rodgers did with Kieran Tierney’s game and subsequent career, which lead to his £25 million move to Arsenal in the summer transfer window of 2019. That was clear profit more or less as he was a product of the youth system. We should he aiming to turn Welsh into a player in the same mould.
Nobody knows for sure what Stephen Welsh is capable of in the game just yet; he’s not been given a long enough run in the team at a high level to see how he gets on and learns and develops from there. With Brendan Rodgers coming back to Celtic Park, it could be the catalyst for Stephen Welsh’s career in a Celtic jersey to spring into action and become a worthy part of the cause.
I for one wouldn’t be ruling anything out at this stage…
Paul Gillespie
In my opinion it is an area we need to make better, we have tried Welsh and Kobiyashi and in my opinion both are not good enough.
Totally agree with you John. We let a better player go in Jack hendry.
He’s 23 ,not a kid any more . No chance of him improving all that much.