Tony Watt

With the imminent signing of the 23y/o Pukki I can't help but think of the plight of Tony Watt. A player that burst onto the scene but who will shortly find himself 4/5 in the pecking order, farmed out and potentially, eventually sold on. The question I ask myself is: was the 19 y/o Pukki a better player than the 19 y/o Watt? My feeling is no, the difference is Pukki was given meaningful game time at HJK, played consistently and eventually showed enough to be bought up by Shalke and has now come to our attention. Part of me wants the purchase of Pukki to go through but what I would really like is for Watt to be given a consistent opportunity through the middle (I.e 10 straight games). I doubt he will ever get this and I expect he will eventually move on as so many of our young prospects have. At clubs like ajax, youth development is everything and a conveyor belt of talent continues to flow through their first 11 (eriksson the most recent with Fischer primed to fill his boots). For me our priorities with regards to youth development are stunted by the expectations of the support in demanding instant success and therefore our young protégés very rarely become a mainstay in our first team.

 

to clarify... watt was signed for big money from airdrie in a 6 figure some around 100k if all add ons are met, he has not come through the youth ranks at celtic.. same applies for erickson.

i would say tony watt came to celtic as a rough diamond and celtic are appling the finishing touches to try and bring out the player in him..

the sad fact is clubs all over europe want 'finished articles ' at 19/20 and are not prepared to bide time into players.. many players bloom late and thus find themselves falling down the tree from the so called top and hit another branch on the way down and then face the challenge to climb the ladder..

joe hart...
kevin phillips..
ian wright..
paul ince...
james mc clean...
shawcross...
micah richards...

common problem with scottish and english academies..

the idea of celtic getting a european feeder club?? why has this idea never sprung up.. loan the fringe players to a feeder club to gain league / european experience and come back confident and flourish...maybe a dutch / belgian / spanish first divison club may snap at the chance.. or even st pauli ?

from what i have seen from watt is that his finishing needs to be more clinical.. which means more match practice to bring this on..

 

I'd rather we loaned him out as I feel his game time will be very limited this season. We might sign another striker as well as pukki so watt would be even further down the pecking order.

 

Out on loan for me as well. Needs playing time but has the potential to be a main striker in a few years time so I wouldn't want to see him go. Already has one of the biggest goals in Celtic history. Also would not be worth the money to sell right now anyways. But the kids got to play.

 

We do, or used to have a European feeder club. Ujpest I think it was.

 

Aye Ujpest in Hungary, think we sent Willie McStay out to manage them & they sent him back shortly afterwards. Oostende in Belgium too according to champ manager. If Watt goes on loan it should be to a decent SPL/Championship team

 

I think he will be used more this season. We really only have pukki, watt, stokes n balde. I'm guessing lennons gonna give sammo the role he had the other night, Behind the striker but tends to go to the left.

hope we sign finbo ! Doubt it'll happen though.

 

He's 19.

He'll be used like any other young striker.

 

Well we've got Barca again so he'll obviously score a winner against them.

 

If he was given a run of games up front and through the middle (not fading out on the wing where he's been deployed recently) then I reckon he'd do really well for us and score goals.

 

nothing he grows up and gets better or stagnates and leaves.

 

I agree, think if he was given a run of games he'd do the business but can't see it happening so predict he'll stagnate and leave.

 

Not sure what role he is going to get this season, he needs to playing week in and week out to get any better same for Dylan. Would loan the pair of them out both need first team football to progress

 

I think Watt will have the exact same role as last season and as a 19 yo he should be happy with that.

 

Plenty of games, soon to be plenty less and more recently deployed on the wings, not his best position. Think he has the ability to play regular regardless of his age but time will tell.

 

Bit of an overreaction of a thread tbh. If we sign Pukki, it'll be him, Stokes, Balde and Watt - that's not all that many strikers, even if we just play with one. Tony's a different kind of striker to the likes of Amido and Stokesy anyway. I'm v confident he'll get a fair crack of the whip.

 

No over-reaction just raising a point for discussion, is that not the purpose of a forum? But tbh your prob right if its only Pukki we bring in he'll prob get his fair share of games considering we'll be fighting on four fronts.

 

I would loan him out for one year and then give him more game time.

 

Would be cool if he played vs barca again :icon_mrgreen: