To be fair I think Robertson was only on the bench because they literally ran out of first team midfielders to pick. Rogic and Johnston were both injured and Shved was held back because he's transfering out in the next few days.
The nine subs allowance means more opportunities to make the bench but I don't think there was any realistic chance of the lad getting on, unless they were four or five goals up,then he might have got a token five minutes like Dembele the week before.
True. Still, they're in the wider picture at least, more than we could have said for O'Connor & Afolabi. Failing a loan move, a token five minutes for Connell would be welcome at this point. Have to start somewhere.
He made more forward passes in that video clip than any midfielder did for Ireland did in the qualifiers, even when he tackles, he tackles forward.
Would he get into the Irish U21 squad should a few of the existing players be promoted? or is he too inexperienced?
It's tough for him at Under 21 level too. You're looking at Molumby and Knight as probably the two best central midfield players (excluding number 10 types like Smallbone and Ronan). Molumby may well be with the Seniors, but then you'd expect Conor Coventry to come back in to the team. And we know that Kenny is a big fan of Joe Hodge. Jack Taylor has also done well when he's had a chance.
It's tough to get in there. Left back possibly offers more opportunity, but Connell's not really a left back and even then there's Thomas O'Connor, maybe the likes of Ryan Burke or Lewis Richards might get a look in. Trevor Clarke is still underage as well.
Luca just seems to be finding competition at every turn right now. It's easy to say with hindsight, but possibly the best thing he could have done for his career was stay with Bolton.
I don't think staying with Bolton was a realistic option for Luca. And the vagaries of a crossborder transfer made it lucrative for both Luca and Celtic.
But didnt they only get something ridiculous because of luca age or somethingOriginally Posted by tetsujin1979
Bolton were in receivership or something similar?
Bolton probably would have gotten more had he gone to an English club such as Sheffield Wed. Celtic were only required to pay a development fee of £1/4m, but as it turned out they volunteered to pay Bolton something substantial over the odds.
Celtic might be needing a back up left back soon! What an utter idiot Bolingoli is.
Yes hopefully this works out well for Luca
And, predictably enough, that's exactly what they have done, bringing in David Turnbull for £3 million from Motherwell. Nicely timed to move the news cycle on from the latest Neil Lennon tactical masterclass against Ferencvaros last night. He's some man for spending other people's money. £4 million on Klimala a couple of months ago and he's already been written off as not good enough, Turnbull would want to hit the ground running to avoid the same treatment.
As for Luca, a loan move was needed anyway so this signing will make only a limited difference to his situation. But who's going to take him? O'Connor, with a higher standing in the Irish youth setup as well as a senior cap, could only get a League 2 move, while the likes of Cassidy, Bazunu and others with arguably a lesser current standing/level of experience go straight from the Premier League or Championship to League 1 loans.
The bottom line is that the Celtic reserves have little or no standing outside of Scotland, so it's going to be difficult for him to get a decent move. Hopefully his previous first team experience with Bolton will be enough to get him something somewhere.
Go to the Dutch league. why not?
Depends if anyone there would take him. Worrying times for the Irish lads at Celtic with reports like this one currently floating around Glasgow.
"Strike 2 was a report from Kieran Devlin on Monday's The Agenda show on The Cynic Patreon podcast, where he relayed that multiple current Celtic players had told him the coaching at Celtic was at a level where they decided to hire their own coaches to help their development."
https://twitter.com/jucojames/status...788428288?s=19
If that's what things are like at senior level, you'd have to wonder what the state of things has been with the youths and reserves in recent years.
Last edited by Eirambler; 27/08/2020 at 2:48 PM.
Royal Antwerp is another one that would take talented lads on loan from big clubs
Why were Celtic daft enough to bring back Lennon ? Jeez things can’t have been that bad. The way things are going the Top League of Ireland teams will be as good as Celtic and Rangers.
There was a remark on here a few weeks ago before Hendrick's transfer that Newcastle was the deathbed of Irish footballer's careers. Surely it must be Celtic? A club with a shocking history of developing Irish talent.
Even the players who did get regular games such as Liam Miller and McGeady struggled when they left to adapt to the far higher level of opposition you find almost anywhere else in Europe.
I still maintain that if McGeady had come through at a club with a better youth structure his weaknesses would have been worked on and he'd have learned how to cross a ball. At Celtic he was the standout youth player in Scotland by a mile at the time, so he was rarely challenged at a younger age to work on his weaknesses. It caught up with him in the end when he moved to the EPL and was found out a bit.
Definitely not knocking his 90 caps by any means but he could have been even better than he was.
I always thought he looked good against minnows for Ireland but struggled badly against decent opposition which is a microcosm of his career as a whole. I agree he did have lots of talent though and could have been so much better if he started his career at a decent club a few hundred miles to the south.
Last edited by youngirish; 27/08/2020 at 9:11 PM.
His dribbling ability and close control must surely be the envy of so many more rounded and accomplished players. He glided with the ball at his feet. And it was as if that was identified as a strength and nurtured to the hilt- but the glaringly less strong aspects of his game weren't addressed like, as you say, they would have been elsewhere. Not seeking to measure him too closely to Duff but they shared that same close control. Duff just had so many other attributes that ended up elevating him to the level he achieved and excelled at.
Incredible to believe he never learned to cross a ball or hold on to procession. He would have improved both of these if he was with clubs in the English Championship of Premier league clubs as he was making his way.
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