I think I’ve made one major error in my writing about the Rocco Vata situation; at one point I think I wrote that he is clearly getting some bad advice. I couldn’t have been more wrong, because actually the advice he is getting from the people closest to the action is spot on.
In an interview which is doing the rounds online, his agent spoke at length about his situation. Players listen to their agents. That his agent also happens to be his dad is all the more reason for him to pay close attention to what he is being told.
Rudi Vata doesn’t believe his son is ready for a move abroad. As I suspected, Rocco himself does not want to sign a new deal at Celtic and thinks it’s time to go and play in a foreign league. But his dad is confident that he can reach the top of the game and thinks that a bad move now will prove to be costly later on, and of course he is correct.
Too many young players in the game make this mistake now, and although Rudi believes that his son deserves more opportunities at Celtic than he has had so far, he recognises that the only way to change that is to work harder and dig deeper and prove himself to the coaches at our club. He knows something else too; if he isn’t willing to put in the hard yards right here, he will certainly find it much more difficult to do it somewhere else.
This is a father looking out for his kid, but there’s a savvy businessman here too because if Rocco Vata goes abroad and spends his time on the bench there, he might find himself back in Scotland before long and it will not be at a club in the top flight but somewhere much lower on the scale, and we know this because we’ve seen it happen before.
What that does to his future contracts doesn’t even have to be guessed at.
He wouldn’t be the first young player who left this club expecting to find the Promised Land just to find out that the grass wasn’t necessary greener.
Celtic will make him a good offer, and if we do, as I said before, he will not be signing it to go back to the Lowland League. You have to think we would only make it and he would only sign it if the club was going to consider him a player in the first team.
That’s his platform, and other players have made great use of it to get to the big money elsewhere.
For his father, this is not just a football decision but a sporting one too though. He thinks that in spite of the lack of opportunities here so far that his kid can crack it and that if he does then the sky’s the limit. If he goes abroad, he’s taking his chances, far from home, amongst strangers.
He’s been at Celtic since he was a kid. This is a familiar place filled with people who will offer him encouragement and continued support. Those things are important.
If he listens to his dad he will do the right thing, and I have to agree that staying at Celtic is probably the best thing for him in his career right now, especially if the door to the first team is now open.
Rodgers wants him to work harder. His dad agrees that he has to.
That’s two incredibly smart men giving him the same advice, and if he’s got any sense he’ll put his frustrations aside and pay attention.
If he does that, then we might see the player we’ve heard is in there somewhere, and if he cracks the squad, gets into the team and gives us some good years he’ll go in time to earn the megabucks and at the same time answer all the questions we’ve been asking ourselves.
Which is all very good and well, James. But surely that should be our project player – not our Kyogo back up. And if this is the news doing the rounds just now, I suspect it’s with the blessing of the money men at Celtic. I am happy for Rocco Vata to stay at Celtic. I wish the boy well. But that’s all he is. A boy. He’s got a couple of more years at least to put in those hard yards you talked about before having any chance of supplanting Kyogo. If him signing an extension is the big news coming out of CP a week today then I am afraid there will be a lot of unhappy Celtic fans as a result.
Sound advice from his Father and from one of the elite managers in the business.
But if Rocco doesn’t want to be here, and won’t listen to Rudi or Brendan, just let him go. We don’t want or need unhappy players in the building. It’s a shame, but If his heart isn’t at Celtic, he isn’t what we need.
I have two teenagers. I think you’ll find they know everything and don’t need any advice. Especially not from people much older than them. In fact they spell advice c r i t i c i s m
However, when they find out they have made a mistake you will get it in the neck for not being more forceful with a d v i c e
As someone once said. If you need to know something ask a teenager. They know everything.
Tony Watt is a good example of what happens when you don’t listen. More clubs than Jack Nicklaus but much less success with each club.
Loan him out to Aberdeen with Celtic picking up his wages and to get a discounted rate for Miovski.
Young Vata does need to have ambition, He should stay & learn from from senior players, his ambition should be to make the match day squad, a step by step development for him, great players have learned from great players, no one gets to be a 1st choice name on the team sheet just because they think they deserve it.
That is never the case if you have a good manager, you need to live the rule of only as good as your last game.
Vata has potential, he has reached around 40% of what’s required, does he have the mentality to get to 90%, if he can do that consistently, hes close to being a regular.
Lesson for all youngsters, nothing will happen in your career unless you make it happen.
Pulling on a Jersey never means you have made it or deserve it.
You need to learn and assert yourself in every match.