Why Do Celtic Struggle To Produce Strikers? This was the very questions put to us during the ‘Listener’s Question’ section of our latest weekly episode of The Celtic Exchange. And the answer isn’t easy to come by.
Celtic’s current first team squad is currently awash with Academy graduates. Our captain Callum McGregor. Modern day legend James Forrest. The rejuvenated Tony Ralston. Young centre-half Stephen Welsh.
Left back Kieran Tierney starred for the first team before a £25M move to Arsenal. Winger Ben Doak has taken a similar path and now finds himself a part of Jurgen Klopp’s first team set-up at Liverpool. All good players in their own right. But not a striker amongst them. Why is this?
Not A New Phenomenon
Looking solely at Celtic’s front men in the ‘modern era’ it’s difficult to pinpoint a homegrown striker that we could label a genuine success. Since the year 2000 who have we produced that could be classed as a genuine No.9 that’s had a notable impact on the first team?
The most recent example to burst on to the scene may have been Jack Aitchison – still only 22 years of age.
Ronny Deila gave the youngster his debut on 15 May 2016 as Celtic beat Motherwell 7-0 on the final day of the season.
At 16 years and 71 days old Aitchison scored with his first touch of the ball and remains our youngest every debutant, and youngest ever goalscorer. He’ll rightly be proud of those accolades, but sadly that’s as good as it got for Jack in the Hoops who now plays in League One for Forrest Green Rovers (on loan from Barnsley) .
Another semi-recent example may be Denny Johnstone. A striker who was tearing it up at youth level around the 2012/13 season. The highly rated youngster even scored against Barcelona in the UEFA Youth League. Despite his success at youth level however he failed to make a first team appearance for Celtic.
He’s since played for around ten different clubs including St Johnstone, Colchester and Burton Albion.
Still only 28, his last recorded senior club was Dumbarton who he left almost two years ago.
Aside from Aitchison and Johnstone you could argue cases for the like of Tony Watt and Craig Beattie, but both were initially products of the Airdrie and Rangers Academies respectively. Their success at the club – winning goals against Barcelona aside – is also debatable.
Is This A 40 Year Problem?
It doesn’t make for comfortable reading that we have to go back as far as the late 70’s for what we think is the last exceptional example. Charlie Nicholas burst on to the scene as a 17 year old, scoring on his debut in August 1979 in a Glasgow Cup tie against Queen’s Park.
The Maryhill born youngster’s goalscoring ability was attracting admiring glances from England from an early age and after almost four years at Parkhead he made the moved to Arsenal for a £750,000 fee in summer of 1983.
Before doing so he finished the 1982/83 season with a phenomenal 48 goals, also picking up the Scottish PFA Player of the Year and Scottish Football Writers’ Player of the Year awards.
Beyond Nicholas, Celtic enjoyed several talented Scottish strikers such as Frank McAvennie, Andy Walker and Mark McGhee across the 80’s though again each had cut their teeth elsewhere before landing at Celtic Park.
Gerry Creaney threatened to be the next big thing when he broke through to the first team in 1990 but found chances limited – ironically by McAvennie and Nicholas who had returned for second spells at the club – before eventually moving to Portsmouth in 1994.
Is Mark Burchill – who broke through in 1998 – the next best example? Burchill had an eye for goal and can perhaps class himself as unlucky to have been trying to establish himself at Celtic Park whilst a certain Swedish superstar was leading the line. Which brings us to a very valid reason as to why some youngster may not be breaking through.
Established Strikers In Place
At the time of Burchill’s breakthrough the senior strikers at the club were Henrik Larsson and Mark Viduka. Two incredibly talented players. To become a first choice against that level of competition is a near impossible task.
In the twenty-five years or so since then we’ve witnessed a number of exceptional strikers in green and white.
Chris Sutton, John Hartson, Maciej Zurawski, Jan Venegoor of Hesselink, Giorgos Samaras, Gary Hooper, Leigh Griffiths, Moussa Dembele and Odsonne Edouard amongst the most prolific.
It’ll have been a serious challenge for an established striker to displace any of the above during their Celtic peak – let alone a young, unproven Academy graduate. You can start to see why so many move on without making a first team appearance.
Moving Forward
Kyogo Furuhashi, Giorgos Giakoumakis (at time of writing) and Hyeongyu Oh are the players currently occupying the forward positions in Ange Postecoglou’s side. No one from Celtic’s B team is providing a challenge at this time.
The move to place Stephen McManus as head of the B Team alongside Darren O’Dea however may prove to be a shrewd one. (Two defensive players who were themselves Academy graduates).
McManus was a part of Ange’s first team staff during the 2021/22 season and now has an intimate understanding of exactly what the manager is looking for from his young players.
Whilst not strikers, Rocco Vata and Bosun Lawal have both made their top team debuts in recent weeks – so could we see a striker follow suit soon?
They say scoring goals is the hardest thing to do in football and there’s no doubt that the pressures of donning No.9 shirt at any big club can weigh heavy on the shoulders of its owner. Prolific strikers aren’t easy for clubs to come by, and Celtic are no different in that respect but maybe – just maybe – we’ll see that change during the era of Ange!
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No mention of Shaun Maloney or Simon Donnelly?
Simon Donnelly came via Queen’s Park so couldn’t credit him as a Celtic youth/academy graduate.
There’s a case for Maloney. Talented player who done well over his two spells, but wouldn’t class him as a genuine striker/No.9. More an attacking midfielder/wide player.
May be something to do with very few home grown strikers.
Yeh its not a problem that’s unique to just Celtic.
Even the two main strikers fir the national team (Lyndon Dykes & Che Adams) were born elsewhere. Australia and London (I think)