It was good, today, to see that Scott Robertson is getting rave reviews for his performances down south where he is on loan at Crewe.
Those who watch our youth teams have been talking his talents up for a while.
He recently signed a three-year deal.
The decision to let him go down south on loan was a good one.
He’ll learn playing football every week, and the level of competition is probably better than he’d get playing in the Lowland League with our youths.
I’m not knocking the lesson the guys who are still here
Provided we haven’t been daft enough to include a buy-out clause – a lesson we certainly must have learned from the Hendry fiasco – he’ll be coming home.
It seems curious, in some ways, that we’d let a guy go who plays in the position where some people think we’re short.
But I would argue that we’re actually stronger in midfield than a lot of folk give us credit for.
McGregor, Soro, Bitton, McCarthy and Shaw are our defensive midfield players. Rogic, Jota, Abada, Forrest and Turnbull are our attackers.
Would Robertson have gotten into that team? Not right away.
He’d have wasted a lot of time cooling his heels on the side-lines.
Instead he’s playing matches in a tough league, and he’ll return here a better play for it. He’s only 20.
It does sound as if he’s doing well though.
He is widely regarded as having put in a man of the match performance in the weekend’s game and this can only improve his confidence. The reason so many Celtic fans are talking about him right now is that many are unimpressed by Soro and weren’t too chuffed with the way McCarthy played.
Robertson plays that aggressive midfield ball-winning position.
These guys should have a think about what they’re saying though.
Soro and McCarthy are senior pros and they are being put under immense pressure for a few shaky displays. Subjecting them to stick is fair game provided it doesn’t get too ridiculous. (As I wrote earlier, it kind of has in some places.)
It would be obscene to subject a 20-year-old without much first team football to that kind of heat.
Imagine he doesn’t work instant miracles?
It is good to see that he’s doing well.
I am confident that he’ll come back a better footballer, with the right level of maturity and experience, that he can challenge for a first ream place.
But it’ll be next season before that happens.
In the meantime, he only needs to keep impressing people.