The Celtic youth academy has produced some good young players over the course of the last few years but not many are making the breakthrough to the first team. Jackie McNamara says that pressures of chasing ten in a row, not only for current manager, Neil Lennon but also previous manager, Brendan Rodgers, meant that they could not take the risk of giving these players a chance when so much was at stake.
With current youngsters Liam Morrison and Barry Hepburn leaving to join Bayern Munich, Josh Adam gone to Man City and Karamoko Dembele and Cameron Harper looking likely to leave, and with Italian interest from Bologna for Armstrong Oko Flex, Celtic are losing a multitude of talent to clubs across the continent due to lack of first team opportunities.
Speaking to the boys at 67 Hail Hail YouTube Channel, McNamara said, “I think looking at it there from the last two seasons, the opportunity that they’ve not had young players, I think it’s been difficult because the pressures been so intense to get the ten in a row, especially this year.
“That for Neil or Brendan before it, to put the young kids in and if you draw a game it’s a crisis, so it takes a brave manager play to play the kids early to give them 2, 3, 4, 5 games, to see if they can handle playing for Celtic which unfortunately leads to the kids going elsewhere for opportunities.”
Celtic have seen, first hand, this season what can happen when youth is given a chance with young David Turnbull and Ismaila Soro making the breakthrough. One can only wonder how many young talented players we have let, and are going to let slip through the net due to lack of first team opportunities.