Lennoxtown Babes - Would You Give Them Time to Shine?

Absolute nonsence

Filip Twardzik is easily the best under 19 player in Scotland technically, his range of passing, shooting, crossing and set peice taking is way better than any other player.

But hes not 6ft 2 or fast as * so hes overhyped, typical Scottish football mentality on show here doesnt matter if hes quality on the ball, the boy cant punt a man in the air or stick the head in a guys face

 

while reading through this thread, it got me thinking.. who do you think the best player to come through our youth has been? .. like really stepped up to the plate and grabbed his chance with both hands?

for me its a toss up between john kennedy or shaun maloney

 

In recent times it would have to be Aiden McGeady. If you're going further back then you'd be looking at Paul McStay. There really hasn't been that many big success stories in between.

 

Yeah between McStay and McGeady only really Kennedy, Maloney and Liam Miller done well.

Yet in the same 20 year time differance before McStay there was Dalglish, Burns, Aitken, Jinky, Lennox, Gemmell, Murdoch, Hughes, Connelly, McCluskey, Macari, Wilson, McGrain etc

 

'If they're good enough, they're old enough' Sir Matt Busby

My thoughts on it are the same as above quote and success would have to be immediate. No problem giving the young lads game time as long as it isn't at the expense of results. The best available XI should be starting every league game, no matter what the expected result, in my opinion anyway.

 

sending players on loan is a bad idea for celtic . being the best team in scotland means you send your players to places like dunfemiline and dundee, where they learn to play ugly and avoid losing . playing in this manner does not prepare you for life as a celtic player . if a player is good enough , then let him play reserve football , and then on to the first team , to play football the celtic way . james forrest is a good example , he has been succesfully blooded as a first teamer , i think hes our best winger and will develop into a top class winger . i would like to see james keatings thrown straight into pre season , and would like to see him get spl game time, the amount of chances we create , a boy with that finishing ability could really go a long way . hes 19 , not 15 , so i say give him a chance.

 

i actually totally forgot about mcgeady haha.

main ones i was thinking of was probably as far back as liam miller, john kennedy, shaun maloney and mcgeady. players that came in and made an immediate impact. although i remember the team a very little bit back when mcstay was playing, i didnt actively follow celtic as i was only just a baby!

more recent ones i can think of would maybe be david marshall at a push, and james forrest kind of falls into the category, but never managed to establish himself as an auto first pick. when forrest got his chances, he really impressed i always thought

 

Reduce 1st team squad to 22ish & blood the young uns gradually.

Sell the squad fillers & buy quality 1st team GK, CB, RW, ST.

Good young crop of attackers, no really decent defenders/GK.

 

What about Charlie Mulgrew and James Forrest?

 

i just dont see it not saying he's a bad player but theres other under 19 players who are better than him imo

 

That's what I would to. No need for a massive squad size as it never gives these youngsters the chance. We have invested heavily in youth over the last 5 years and we should be starting to see it come to fruition.
One thing that imo needs to be done with these younger players, especially the defenders is to try and bulk them up. Our youth players at 18-20 still look very lightwieght.

But this pre-season I'd like to see 3 or 4 getting good game time and prepare them for next season. We should be going out pumping a team by 60 min then giving the lads a chance to play 1st team football. Always happend when were winning well we bring on fringe players. They've done their developing, let the younger ones get a chance.

 

Wouldn't mind the odd sub appearance, the odd start. If there are 5 or 6 promising players, then why not start preparing them for first-team action?

Instead of having guys like Ljungberg, Juarez, Loovens or even Murphy - why not give young Bhoys a chance instead?

Not 4 or 5 at the same time. That could be disastrous.

 

Charlie Mulgrew isn't a success story at the level of an Aiden McGeady or a Paul McStay. Mulgrew has drifted around a few clubs and has finally landed back at Celtic. He's an ok player but I wouldn't say Mulgrew is a ringing endorsement of Celtic's youth development system.

James Forrest, it's still early days for him. He might go on to be the next Aiden McGeady but it's still too early to tell and I wouldn't like to burden him with too much expectation at this stage in his development.

 

I don't agree with this.

Guys like Scott Brown, Mark Wilson, Jackie McNamara, Barry Robson, Paul Hartley, Anthony Stokes etc etc all learned their trade at other Scottish clubs. Our young players would learn far more by playing for Hibs, Kilmarnock or Dundee than they will learn playing at U-19 level for Celtic.

You say let them play reserve football? We don't have a reserve team or a reserve league anymore. So that option is out the window straight away.

In my opinion the reason players like Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson, Mark Wilson etc developed to the level they have is because they were playing regular first team SPL football from a very young age. They learned on the job. They will never be allowed to learn on the job at Celtic because the fans just won't be patient enough to put up with the inconsistent results that often come when you play youngsters in the team.

I think Celtic should make more use of the loan system not less. Some of our young kids would benefit from going and playing for other Scottish clubs imo.

 

Bringing young guys at 18 or 19 can have two effects, it really all depends on the mental attitude of the player. For instance some young players can come in and think they have arrived, made it, Berty big bollocks, or maybe come in and feel totally overawed and feel out of their comfort zone( particularly when things aint going well for the big team) so it can make or break a players confidence. There are very few young players that can come in and appreciate that they are still learning and still need to progress and still need to work like mad to improve. Aiden Mc Geady for me was one of those, I always felt he knew he had been given an opertunity and worked hard to improve, however Liam Miller had all the attributes to be a total superstar but didn't want to wait and he is the prime example of the Berty big bollocks. So it all depends upon the make up of the player and not solely about footballing talent.

 

If I had a penny for every youth or reserve player who is described as brilliant over the years. Virtually none of them make it. Who has come though who you could say were good enough to go quickly into the Celtic team over the last 10 or 15 years? Aidan, wee Shaun, JFK. Maybe you could add Forrest. I perosnally would rather we did away with all the elaborate youth system and just let players work themselves up starting off at wee clubs. Far too many players are having their deveiopment ruined by being still in our reserves when they are 22 or 23.

 

forgot about Liam Miller. He was a great player when he broke through.

 

Scotland was an amazing conveyor belt of talent for such a wee country up until around 1990 then it suddenly started to dry up.