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Aberdeen Must Be Kicking Themselves At Another Celtic Loanee Who Slipped Away.

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The least surprising news of the month so far is that Brendan Rodgers wants to see the club give Liam Scales a new deal. He has been brilliant, and is far and away the surprise package of this whole campaign.

He has more than earned a new contract although it does leave us with a slight issue at the back which we’re going to have to resolve somehow.

We can discuss that at a later date, it’s an obvious issue but the sort of one that any other side would welcome having. Too many good players in one position.

But today, as the club gears up offer that contract, spare a thought for Aberdeen. I mean that, I’m not joking. I always want to see other Scottish clubs get better and it’s one of the reasons why I think we should be sending our players out on loan to other top flight sides as often as we can.

Obviously I don’t want them getting stronger at our expense, but prior to recent events none of us would have had the least concerns with Liam Scales leaving.

Aberdeen would have been the obvious choice. He spent last season there on loan and they were desperate to snap him up on a long-term deal. My understanding is that they made Celtic an offer, but that Celtic rejected it as too low and Aberdeen realised that they couldn’t complete the deal. If they’d had the cash, he would have been off.

We would not have missed him at the time, and we’d have considered it good business. But there’s little doubt he would have emerged as a key player at Pittodrie and would have left there for a nice sum of money eventually, probably to somewhere in England.

They would have made a nice profit on him, aside from having gotten a very fine player for a spell. And so it must frustrate them not to have been able to get a transfer over the line, and even more so that he would likely have returned there on loan anyway had he not been drafted into key games for us and played so damned well in them.

The worst thing for Aberdeen is that they’ve suffered this before. They took Ryan Christie on loan, and saw him turn into a tremendous player for them before he returned to Celtic. There were talks underway to have him move to Aberdeen again, perhaps on loan but more likely on a permanent deal. Few of us could foresee him breaking into our side.

And then, as happened with Scales, we were forced, by injuries and suspensions, to turn to him. A sensational performance at Murrayfield changed everything for him, and for us. He was barely out of the team for the next three years, and Aberdeen were cursing their luck. He too would have been an outstanding player for them and would have stood a good chance of moving to England from Pittodrie and securing them a tidy sum of money.

So yeah, I feel a measure of sympathy for them. They’ve played a role in developing these two players along with us; there is no doubt that Christie was on a road to nowhere at Celtic Park and badly needed to go on loan and get games, and Scales wouldn’t have made any kind of impact on Celtic without having spent a season there.

Kris Ajer did the same thing at Kilmarnock, and so there is clearly some value in letting our young players go to SPFL teams.

I think we should consider sending out Mikey Johnston and Stephen Welsh in the January window, along with a couple of others.

The most obvious ones, by far, are Kwon and Tillio, who I would love to see get games with Premiership teams so we can see what they’ve got. We’d have let Rocco Vata go on loan, possibly to Scotland, if he had signed a new deal.

Aberdeen fans don’t want us to send them any more loanees, or so media reports suggest. They can’t play against us in games and they can’t afford to turn the moves into permanent deals. I think that’s short sighted of them if it’s true, and it would be equally short sighted for other clubs if they were considering the same stance.

For helping Scales become a better player, they should have our thanks. Ironically, my confidence going into the game at Ibrox was based in no small part on the performance he had put in against their club the season before, when he scored a goal and was tremendous. He definitely evolved as a footballer, and that’s why we set a fee that in the end they couldn’t afford to pay.

He would not be in the team right now without their taking him on loan.

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8 comments

  • Thomas M Daley says:

    I would fill our nearest competitors with Celtic loaners. They can help take points off that VAR backed, ‘no penalties’ against 2012 team.

    • Roonsa says:

      Fun fact of the day, Tam. Celtic have received, and scored, and conceded, the exact same amount of pens as sevco in the SPFL this season. The argument has to be in the detail, not the quantity. i.e. when these penalties are awarded. We get them when the game is done. They do not.

      • watsamatabooboo says:

        Sorry mate, but as an argument this is bullshit. Both teams spend the majority of league games on the attack, so the penalties received stats should always be broadly similar, though as you say we tend to get ours when we’re 3-0 up and theirs are almost always at 0-0 or when they’re trailing.

        Trying to equate neither side conceding in 12/13 league games this season with meaning Tam’s ‘no penalties against’ statement is not backed up by the details means completely ignoring the fact they’ve now gone 67 consecutive leagues without giving away a penalty. Added to that a run off 44 games ended only about a year before this current run started, meaning the have more or less gone 3 of the last 4 seasons without conceding a spot kick despite multiple instances of blatant handball and wrestling forwards to the ground in the box, all under the watchful eye of VAR for almost a year. That’s the detail right there. HH

  • John L says:

    Mikey Johnston has been loaned out enough, at this stage, I would hope that he was ready for some first team football when we lose so many for the Asia Cup , if not then it’s the permanent door .

    • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

      Depending on what we do in The January transfer window I might be of the ‘postpone some games’ variety…

      We will need to use every most little mi-mute advantage we can this year for sure and that option is one of the very few that Celtic will ever be afforded in Scottish Football –

      As for Liam Scales :

      Yip Aberdeen were good for him and ultimately us as well…

      Their club would probably welcome another Scales type arrangement –

      I doubt their fans would be so welcoming of such a scenario though !

      • John Mc Grath says:

        As a season ticket holder with Ireland’s Hoops – Shamrock Rovers – I am not surprised with how Liam Scales has developed. Came from UCD & in truth was a bit ropey @ 1st. He is an excellent footballer, comfortable on the ball. A good option to grab a goal or 5 also – in the correct goal – @ set pieces. Also has a decent shot on him as well. He might be even better as a full or wing back on the left side of the field. Maybe another 8 figure player – how many is that in the Celtic squad.

  • Johnno says:

    Let’s not forget how scales helped the sheep in being able to get European football to add to the income of the sheep also James?
    So it’s not like they didn’t benefit hugely from the loan deal also.
    Sometimes you need that bit of luck, usually at another player’s misfortune within football, to really kick start your career with a club.
    Certainly has happened for scales, and taken the opportunity with both hands and delighted for himself.
    The injuries at CB with 3 of them unavailable, presented the opportunity, and now playing to such a high degree that he’s near enough undropable?
    Still believe regardless of the injuries at CB, he may well of replaced bernie within the CL squad, as the backup for Taylor, even if I don’t personally like him in the left back role?
    Rodgers has now the option of changing to the 3CB if he should wish to, and actually though that might have been a potential option for the CL, but to many injuries for it really to be considered?
    Yet its a potential option for Rome, with missing so much firepower available to ourselves?
    Found myself having to defend Starfelt upon many occasions, especially when made our scapegoat on far to many occasions for my liking, and was delighted when he proved his worth to ourselves.
    Yet with Scales being far more comfortable with the football, and able to match Starfelt defensive qualities, then I can only conclude that Scales is currently an improvement upon Starfelt as an all round player for ourselves currently?
    Could it even be regarded as the best decision upon the transfer activity of the summer?
    Starting to get very tough in giving the answers now imo?

  • SSMPM says:

    Not sure that we do have really good CB’s waiting in the wings, that has yet to be proven though that may come to fruition. The jury’s still out on that after a few too many silly mistakes were being made early on, fortunately we got away with one at the midden.
    As for Scales, that goal at Pittodrie was a brilliant cross from the left that smashed the huns delusions of grandeur. A position a certain Johnny Green, of this very blog and an infamous anti-Taylor advocate, and I, stated many times Celtic should be trying at LB or left side CB. So Johnny bhoy we’re visionaries fella albeit unrecognised and clearly unremembered. HH

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