The appointment of Harry Kewell to the coaching staff is no longer news, neither is the sideways move of Stephen McManus to lead the Celtic B team through the Lowland League. However, it may just end up being the biggest move of a hectic summer at Celtic Park.
With the huge outlay this summer so far in Jota, CCV, Maeda and Bernabei, Celtic have spent over £18 Million, before pre-season has really begun. With more signings potentially on the way, this looks like the summer in which we will extend our stride and march away from our local rivals. Yet for our extended success, the biggest move may be moving one of our first team coaches to develop our younger players.
When Alex Ferguson took over Man Utd in 1986, he knew the way to self-sustainability was in the youth programme. The Class of 92 followed and so the spine of the next decade of success for the Old Trafford club was created.
Barcelona created a way of playing that was embedded from youth teams up, but perhaps more relevant to our own club size is the consistent success of Ajax in developing its own talent then moving them on to huge clubs for enormous mark-ups.
Each of these teams have a stamp of who they really are. For a club our size and identity, it’s encouraging to see McManus develop youth in the same way as the first team, to see Ange develop “The Celtic Way”.
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It has its good and bad points, sticking to one system throughout a clubs various levels; it makes it easier for players to move up a level as they’re already comfortable playing a set system, but it also makes it easier for opponents to play against you as they know how you set up and what to expect.
…you can usually only get away with it for so long before needing to switch things up when your opponents sus you out, but one way of keeping the same system fresh is having a good sized squad, with players who have their own individual talents and strengths, who play a little differently in the same system to the player they’re replacing, like Kyogo and Giakoumakis do playing Centre Forward.
Ange knows what he’s doing, he’s seen and done it all before, so in that respect I’d be happy for him to implement his style throughout the clubs various levels, so long as the club continue to back him in the transfer market to enable him to keep things fresh and not go stale!