Bosun Lawal

Should have had him loaned to a Scottish team though, of we.dod that he would have counted as Scottish homegrown for UEFA lists, as it stands he won't and will never count as Scottish homegrown so would need to come from the 17

 

If he had stayed at CB not sure that would even matter. We at least have an improved player now.

 

Yep either we didnt/don't see him making it here and was loaned out in hope of selling him at a decent fee or it was just our usual lack of forward planning.

 

If we genuinely think he can step up, then the next loan should be a much better team and league.

By definition if we think he is good enough to contribute significantly for Celtic next season, then he's good enough to contribute for a club somewhere between Fleetwood Town and Celtic.

Put another way, if he was a Fleetwood player now then it would be considered extremely high risk to sign him for the Celtic midfield based on a good season. The problem is if you genuinely think he's good enough but want to see more, you risk missing out on him as someone else snaps him up.

But he's already our player, I don't see why we wouldn't progress his loan to a better club.

 

CalMac was "signed" from Notts County

 

Sorry, I'm unsure of the rules here..

So even though he's come through our Academy, because we've loaned him out, it means he can't count as homegrown/club grown?

Edit: I see we signed him as an 18yr old from Watford and is obviously Irish, so just wondering how the loan has effected his status?

 

If he'd played in Scotland for 3 years before turning 21, he'd count as Scottish for the Euro squad

 

Aye, does seem poorly planned then..

Maybe we didn't factor in how good he could be at DM.. tried to make him into a CB, when all the plaudits he got at Watford were for his midfield role.

 

I think people misremember McGregor's return.

He played out wide a lot and while he did contribute, he was wildly inconsistent. He was miles away from what he became under Rodgers.

He benefitted from the enormous margin of error in the league and the general quality of player we were bringing in due to budget cuts.

If McGregor returned from Notts County now he would get far less game time and would stagnate significantly. It was a very unique situation he was in, and even though it worked out there were times it looked like it wouldn't. It was 10 years ago and not comparable to the situation Lawal would be in when he returns.

I know people want us to develop our own players, but it's very difficult at Celtic. We're not midtable also-rans that can afford some poor games while we develop players. We can't risk not acquiring what we need in the transfer window based on good performances at Fleetwood Town - not even a little bit. That's not me saying he wouldn't come in and do very well, it's about risk.

If we sign some midfielders and get it competitive, I wouldn't be against him coming back to compete for a place. I'll say it again, if he's had a loan that we genuinely think puts him in contention for a place in the Celtic midfield, then we can surely progress his development at a better club quite comfortably.

 

3 years in a League system between 15 and 21, to count as club grown it's 2 years and at most 12 month out on loan in the same.league system (to make the 3 years) in that time.

Nationality has no bearing at all, as an example Ajer is Scottish home grown and Celtic club grow for UEFA rules

 

I think one of us might be mis remembering. I watched him a bit at County and was really looking forward to seeing him for us. He scored a belter against Warsaw which I think was his first game.
It counted for nothing as we got gubbed, but then got back in again.

He then went onto put in a lot of other good performances which amongst my mates it seemed only I saw them until eventualy they started to come round.

There's no doubt he improved under Rodgers, but he was a very good Celtic player from the first time he put the shirt on.

 

He was a good player but he was inconsistent, and he did play out wide quite a lot because he wasn’t ready for his preferred position at a club like Celtic.

It’s not like he returned from loan and immediately established himself as a starting CM the way a new signing does.

I’m not criticising him, by the way, I’m just saying if we’re going to point at McGregor 10 years ago and say Lawal can be that, then that’s likely not good enough for us next season given the competition we have now. That’s not to say he couldn’t do a job, but for development a better loan would be the logical next step.

Put another way, if McGregor is returning from Notts next season then I would probably loan him out to a Championship club for a season. I think it would still work out.

 

O'Riley came from League One and walked straight into our starting 11 just two years.

 

To be fair, this is the exact kind of snobbery that leads to us defending our league against folk down south.

If he's playing well, standing out infact, then we should be taking advantage of that and integrating him in with the first team come pre season.

 

Was it not MK Dons we signed O'Riley from?

Not disagreeing with what you are saying. Just there is a precedent.

 

For sure guys, but with respect I'm not sure what the precise point is here.

I think we can all agree the task in the Celtic midfield is much tougher than the Fleetwood midfield right? So by definition there's a significant amount of risk bringing a player doing well at Fleetwood to Celtic and expecting that to continue.

I don't see how O'Riley coming from League One changes that. If he had come from the Highland League, would we say anyone performing well on loan there should be automatically in our first team plans when they return?

Like I'm not sitting here writing him off, or writing off his experience and performance at Fleetwood.

I'm just saying, since we already have the player and aren't going to 'miss the boat' on him, is it not fair comment to say we could progress his development at the next level up rather than using our own season to test him? Given that our club has extremely small margins for error.

 

From what I saw of him at Celtic and his displays with the underage teams I can honestly say he was one of the worst players I've ever seen pull on the hoops.. has he suddenly turned into Messi with Fleetwood Mac in the English lower leagues? Genuine question..

 

He’s been pushed back in to centre midfield which was his natural position and seems to be getting good reviews.

I agree with you though when I saw him previously he is never a centre back, where we had him playing.

 

"So by definition there's a significant amount of risk bringing a player doing well at Fleetwood to Celtic and expecting that to continue."

There's a risk if we sign a player doing well at Fleetwood and expect it to translate to our midfield but since we already own him and are paying him, there's no risk to give him a preseason and if he impresses then keeping him around for a season and see if he can break through. The only risk is his value decreases and we pay his wages for an extra year but it's not like we're talking big money regardless.

 

Fair enough and fair play to him if that's the case. He looked a bumbling nervous clumsy wreck here but as you say it seems we were playing him out of position. Probably playing him centre back so we wouldn't have to buy one