Since breaking into the Aberdeen team in February Connor Barron hasn’t looked back. He was a fans favourite in no time at all, gained a nomination for the PFA young player of the year and is a Scotland under-21 international who performed well for Scotland against Belgium, and now he’s been linked with a move to Celtic.
Barron isn’t likely to be a player Aberdeen boss Jim Goodwin would like to see leave that’s for sure, and prior to the start of the year the likes of Calvin Ramsey and Jack Mackenzie were perhaps the Aberdeen graduates you’d have expected big clubs to be circling. Yet after a couple of loan spells with Brechin City and then Kelty Hearts, Barron, in a short space of time, has grabbed his first team chance with the Dons and may well now be catching the eye of Ange Postecoglou.
There is an argument to say a jump to Celtic may well come too soon for Barron and that’s a point former Aberdeen and Scotland striker Duncan Shearer made in his Press and Journal column, and of course from Aberdeen’s perspective there is merit in Shearer’s standpoint.
“The Aberdeen midfielder has put in some very good performances whenever I’ve watched him and he showed on Sunday with the Scotland under-21s in their goalless draw with Belgium how good a prospect he is.
“He should be flattered with the link to the Hoops – they are the Scottish champions after all – but my advice is to try to ignore if it he can.’
“He cannot influence what happens here but he should listen to his agent, his manager and his team-mates around him at Pittodrie.’
“It is very easy, especially for a teenager, to have their head turned when they are linked with a big move but Barron has only been in the Dons first team for a matter of months.
“He is clearly a part of Jim Goodwin’s plans at the club and my advice for what it is worth would be to stay focused on trying to gain as much experience as possible.”
If Celtic were looking to sign Calvin Ramsey now the chances, are we would have missed the boat with top EPL sides sniffing around the full-back. As such if Celtic do want to get the best of Scottish talent it may well be we have to make moves for such players much earlier in their careers rather than be left behind, and with Aberdeen reported to be keen on Celtic’s left back Liam Scales there may well be a deal can be done this summer with Connor Barron, allowing Scales to move in the other direction.
And as much as Shearer may feel the player would benefit from more time spent at Aberdeen, the player himself must also consider the footballing education he would achieve under Ange Postecoglou. With the Celtic manager indicating he’s looking for first team players rather than squad fillers this summer, then perhaps the Celtic boss feels Connor Barron is already ready to challenge for a first team spot at Celtic, and with Tom Rogic and Nir Bitton moving on the space for a midfielder has already opened up.
Barron is a right footed central midfielder, and although small in stature certainly doesn’t lack for battling qualities as well as being impressive on the ball. He is also an intelligent player and seems to have his head screwed on, as was evidenced in an interview with the Aberdeen matchday programme back in April
“I was really small when I was younger, but I did not think anything of it at all – I still don’t really. It has always made me think that little bit quicker, because I was not able to get into a battle and push off boys. It made me that little bit sharper so I could get away from opponents when I was younger, and it’s still the same today.”
“My size was never an issue for me. Aberdeen have always been great with me in that sense. At some clubs, they won’t push players up the age grades if they are physically not ready but that is not the case here. If you are good enough, you are old enough. They were always eager to put me on to the next age group to see how I could get on.”
“Maybe a couple of times they pushed me on thinking it was a step too far and I would not manage it, but I believe in my ability. I always felt I did better when I had more of a challenge on my hands, because I had a point to prove. That attitude has stuck with me all the way through.”
“It was a challenge to play in the lower leagues because you do get some managers at clubs down there who maybe want a big midfielder to go in and smash people and play it long, and they don’t really look at the player himself and see what he does when he’s got the ball and when he doesn’t.”
“I have had that a couple of times, when teams wanted someone bigger, but that is just football, people have their different opinions and different ways of playing the game. I just focus on myself. If someone does not believe in me, I just get on with it. I know what I can do and what I can bring to the team.”
“I didn’t really play reserve football so it is difficult for me to say if that is the right way to go. But without the reserve league now the gap from U18s to first team is very big, so the loan side was a massive help for me.
“Going down there to Kelty, I knew that the aim was to win the league. That is why I wanted to go there, to win games and I knew they wanted to play good football and get the ball on the deck so it really suited my game.”
Connor Barron appears to have the sort of mentality and positivity that Ange Postecoglou would look for in a player. He’ll also be aware of the fact Barron has embraced every loan move before his subsequent promotion to the Aberdeen first team – and the Scottish international set-up – and grabbed it with both hands.
As such is there really much need for Barron to stay another season at Aberdeen if he’s ready to make the next step now? Perhaps not, because Connor Barron certainly has an attribute, we know Ange Postecoglou likes to see – he never stops.
“It has been great so far for me personally. I have enjoyed every minute of it. I feel that I have done well in there. I just have to keep going. I must not forget what got me here because that is what I have to keep on doing. I have worked hard to get to where I am today. But the hard work does not stop. I have to keep working hard every day in training and be the best I can be in every game.
“There are always areas where I feel I can get better and I know I can do a lot more on the pitch. I am very self-critical after games when I watch them back. I think to myself that I could do this or that differently when I am in that situation next time. It is all about trying to get the best out of myself.
“After training every day, I try to do a little bit of extra work, just to make sure I am ticking over and making myself better. Because it’s one thing getting into the first team but the biggest thing is that you’ve got to then keep your place. If you’re not performing every day or looking at getting better as a young player, then that opportunity just goes away and somebody else comes in and takes your place off you.”
“Off the pitch I’m quite calm. I make sure I do all my jobs and help the kitmen. I get about the boys and I speak to them all, I like a good laugh and all that. But throughout the years, I’ve always been one of the leaders and captains in the team, right from when I was young, all the way through. And I’ve always said to myself that when I break into a first team, or when I get that opportunity, that that’s not going to change.”
“I remember my first day of training with a first team a couple of years back, the first thing that I got feedback about was that I was up there, and I was demanding things off the other, senior players. I think that you get that authority and respect off the boys when you’re doing that. You can obviously go over the line and go a bit too far. But for me, if I’m not communicating and being that leader when I’m out there and battling away, I don’t feel I get the best out of myself. So when I go on the pitch, I just flip a switch and I am on game mode.”
It’s difficult to tell with so many rumoured transfer targets doing the rounds if Connor Barron is a player Celtic are interested or not, but if Celtic are doing their homework close to home as well as they are in targeting players from abroad, Barron must surely be a player that has caught the eye, both for his performances on the park and his assuredness and professionalism off it.
And whilst EPL clubs may be willing to wait and see how the player develops next season before making their move Celtic could be in a position to move far sooner.
15 games for Aberdeen and a further 28 on loan is not the greatest sample size on which to judge, but are Celtic in a position to wait and see the player picked off later for a bigger fee? Do we really need to see much more?
And with Liam Scales interesting Jim Goodwin there is a window of opportunity here for Celtic that may well close after this summer. Perhaps then now is the time to test the water.
Niall J
Watch this…
