If Celtic’s Promising Youth Talent Is Good Enough, He’ll Be A First Team Player.

This weekend saw the latest appearance from one of our most promising young players, Rocco Vata, son of our former player Rudi Vata and one of the hottest prospects we have in the academy. He is a fine football, and he may be on the brink of his chance.

For a while now, Rocco Vata has tantalised us with possibility. I have only written about him a couple of times because, frankly, I’m leery about writing about any of our youth prospects these days. So many of them have let us down and let themselves down by showing great promise and either never fulfilling it or leaving before it blossomed.

Few who have left have done well out of the arrangement. That has to be said, and especially in light of talk that Vata might be the next to depart without having made a significant impact on the first team squad. People in the media keep on talking about how Celtic’s current signing policies stand in the way of youth players breaking through … but think on that for a second.

Would we spend millions on players if there was someone in the B team who was blowing the competition away every week and so obviously looked like a cut above? We do give opportunities to players in the under 21’s, but those players need to be exceptional to cement a place. They need to be able to offer something more than just hype.

Celtic has never put up barriers against our young footballers. Why in God’s name would we? If there were four or five talents in the academy who were worthy of first team football we would welcome that with open arms as we did with Forrest, McGregor, Tierney, Ralston and Johnston. It’s not in anyone’s interests for us to stand in the way of players like that. Ange would love to have a core group of them in the squad.

So I think we’re all hoping that Rocco Vata is the real deal, and that he’s the one who is finally able to break through and cement a place. It would be fantastic to see the emergence of a footballer of real quality from the ranks of the youth side.

But we’ve seen this film before, with the likes of Aiden Nesbit, Karamoko Dembele, Islam Feruz, Calvin Miller and a host of others. That’s just a handful of names off the top of my head. We’ve missed out on a few, like Aaron Hickey, but in the main … yeah, it’s been a while since there was an obvious superstar, a break-through talent who could really do it.

Some would say we are due one. If Rocco Vata is it then that will be welcomed by each and every fan, and no matter what some of the hacks might think, Celtic will not put up a single obstacle to his progression. In fact, Ange would like nothing more than to see it.