As Celtic Prepares To Let More Players Go To The SPFL On Loan We Face One Problem.

Last week, when we found out Kwon was going to St Mirren for a season on loan, most of us were pretty happy with that. Now Adam Montgomery is headed for Motherwell. The same thought is inspired here as was with the midfielder; we should do more of this.

Monty was on loan at Fleetwood, and last week we recalled him from that loan. I guess we figured that it’s not gone as well as planned. The decision to offer him out to another SPFL club – he’s previously been at St Johnstone and Aberdeen – is very welcome. Hopefully, under the right boss in the right system he’ll crack on and show what he’s got.

We all liked the look of Monty when he broke into our team. We could see he had something, even if it wasn’t quite enough to get into the Celtic side on a regular basis. He really needs to crack on with this next move, and he needs to really start to come on as a player if he’s to return to our club with any chance of making it. We’ll see how he does.

In the meantime, this is a positive direction from us and according to some of the hacks this will not be the last player we send out to SPFL sides in this window. Brilliant if true. As we’ve discussed several times here, this is the kind of thing we want to be doing because it strengthens the sides around us as well as giving valuable game time to our guys.

We run into obstacles doing this, the most glaring of which is a natural snobbery at these other clubs where the players have to win over some initial resistance from the fans. Nobody wants their team to be used as a feeder club, it’s why I disapproved of our own tendency in years gone by to take players on loan without having an option to buy them.

But the simple fact is that even our backup players are generally good enough to play at the SPFL level, and that’s why these clubs should welcome such deals especially as they deliver a really good player every now and again. Aberdeen benefited massively from the likes of Christie, Monty and Scales and that’s why the anger of their fans over these sorts of deals is hard to credit. Yes, they can’t play against us … but if they are the difference between teams getting European places and not, why would it not be considered worth it?

The fans of other clubs in this league need to stop being so parochial. This is good move for Motherwell and will improve their side. That ought to be all that matters.

For us, it’s a strategically sound move in several ways, not least of which is that it increases the potency of one of the other sides in this league at no cost to us, and that has to be something every Celtic fan welcomes … as well as the suggestion that we might do more of the same.