As the biggest team in the country you always expect that Celtic will have the best young players, but they still have an issue where the gap between the first team and youth setup is huge.
We saw this season that the margins are tight and there’s just no room for dropping any points, so it’s going to make any manager nervous about putting young players into the first team.
There isn’t any time for them to make their mistakes and adapt to senior football, while the squad is usually deep with talent so that makes it even harder to break through.
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Young forward Cameron Harper did get a taste of first team action against Hibs this season but that was mainly down to the Dubai circumstances, and he eventually decided to return to the US with New York Red Bulls.
The Daily Record reported on some of his comments after making the move, and you can understand why he felt the need to move on:
“Obviously Celtic are in a bit of a rebuild because they haven’t been the best this year. Some of the older guys are on the way out, but I felt like I developed really well there in three years and I felt like I learned a lot of things there, and got coached by some great coaches.
“”But when I spoke to Red Bull and Kevin Thelwell, his plan for me fit exactly what I envisioned for me in the next few years of my career.
“It felt right. It felt like they like young, dynamic players who are able to things further up the field and that’s what I think fits my style.
“At Celtic, it can sometimes be hard to break through. You only get so many chances, especially in a team that have to win every game, so when I spoke to Kev everything sounded good.
“”At my age I need opportunities and they (New York) were very honest with me and said I would get my opportunity if I play well in training, and that’s all you can ask for.
“It’s really good for me. I was obviously with the first team for a little bit and then things went a little bit sour, so I was back in the reserves, but I’m happy to be back with the first-team.”
He did show some flashes in that first team appearance but there wasn’t enough to suggest he deserved to play in front of the other players in the squad, so hopefully this gives him the playing time that he needs to develop.
