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Celtic’s Latest Scouting Mission Makes Perfect Sense And Fits With The Plan.

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Celtic’s scouts were at the Scotland-Belgium Under 21 game the other night and the consensus is that they were there to watch Connor Barron of Aberdeen. This is probably the case.

That they were there watching someone is not in the least doubt; the only dispute is about the player. I think the stories about Barron are accurate.

Connor Barron is a comer.

He hasn’t played enough games for Aberdeen to justify a huge fee, but he definitely has talent. He has been capped at every level for Scotland short of the first team and even with the midfield being the strongest area of the national team he will almost certainly be capped for the national team if he continues his progress next year.

He has spent two spells on loan, and clearly made enough of an impact at both clubs.

His development trend is clearly upwards. Although only a prospect at the moment, he ticks the right boxes for us and it makes perfect sense that we’re scouting him.

Celtic has always had a good core of young players in the first team squad.

That has to continue.

It is important for the club’s identity and vital for European registrations. The kid isn’t going to be a first team player or anything, not right away or for a while, but I would completely understand if we made them an offer for him.

We have done well out of young Scottish talent over the years, and Ange has spoken at length about how he has no concerns about shopping locally … he has proved that buying in a market he’s worked in is smart strategy; his judgement can certainly be trusted on this and if we do make a bid for Barron it will be because that’s what Ange wants.

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  • jrm63 says:

    The simple truth is if he wants to continue to develop he should stay at Aberdeen. You have already identified the youth development problems at Parkhead, accurately in my opinion. – with a 3 man midfield competition is pretty fierce

  • Seppington says:

    We can’t give a young guy like Scales a chance after one season and are looking to punt him to the Dons…how does that look to this young lad? It’s a risk for a young player to come to us (or the scum) as if you don’t make the grade right away you disappear somewhat. How many project signings have actually come good for us? Very few, certainly not enough and that is a problem though not much we can do unless the SFA sort out a reserve league.
    Of course the lad might be a mad tim and no amount if clear logical thought will dissuade him from signing!

  • michael mccormack says:

    The boy Luca Connell is a perfect example of young players being stunted by the lack of competitive games either first team squad or a reserve league which was scrapped because the Ibrox mob couldn’t afford to run a reserve team so campaigned to play meaningless friendlies . When Celtic signed Connell everybody was over the moon but sadly the lad fell away , think he should’ve been given more game time as there was definitely a player there .

    • Seppington says:

      Agreed. More sad to lose Connell than Dembele, who flattered to deceive. Even loaning Luca to another SPL team to see him perform at the level he’d be every week at CP (Europe aside) seemed a good idea to me. But, in Ange we trust, and I guess we’ll see how these lads fare as their careers progreess….

    • Damian says:

      Connell just didn’t look good enough whenever he was given game time. He didn’t look particularly good at Queen’s Park either

  • Johnny Green says:

    Yeah, there are too many speculative signings and not enough first team places in which to blood them. I’m not sure that Celtic is the place for young prospects to mature and prosper as we rely more on experienced players that will hit the ground running. It’s a tough dilemma but I think we must only try and nurture our own youths coming through the system rather than stifle them with too much competition for not enough places.

    • Damian says:

      We should look to shift that for financial reasons, if nothing else. Near-competitior clubs (Ajax, Benfica, Salzburg, Anderlecht…) buy players at 19 for £2m-£5m then sell them at 23 for £40m. We recruit players at 22-23 for £5m then sell them at 26 for £12m.

      We also need to invest in the midfield. If we are looking to really go Moneyball (or just, to do what well run equivalent football operations do), we should be open to selling Turnbull, who is a good player but doesn’t really fit into any iteration of Ange’s system. Get £5m for him (you won’t get more) and invest in a young athletic number 8. Even with less intrinsic ability than Turnbull (who has plenty on one foot, none at all on the other – like, zero), a more energetic player in the middle would make for a smoother system.

      I’ve no idea if the young lad from Aberdeen matches that description, right enough.

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