SENTINELCELTS

Today’s article, please forgive me, shall focus on a non Celtic player, simply because I view this player as a test case for future emerging domestic talent.
I’m talking about Lennon Miller of course, speculate on how this plays out and the implications involved.

With Luke cup tied, on Sunday I recall thinking we could really do with him. I don’t think Reo would have played the full match if he was our player,,if being the biggest small word in the dictionary never mind football.

We now know there will be competition for his signature, serious competition, and presumably the lad via his advisors will do what he feels best.
And I’m very curious to find out, for it will not only tell us a lot but maybe hint at a trend.

If I were in the shoes of his advisors, I would start at the very beginning and analytically break down ‘their asset’.
We are looking at an attacking midfield young player with a touch of flair and a high ceiling. But the reason he has improved to this stage is by actually starting and playing games very regularly. There should be no doubt over that, none at all. It therefore makes sense to believe better will come with more starts and gametime, and being fantastically young, time is on his side as far as getting better via playing then hitting the bigtime goes.

But you all know the score, money talks. Yet the bigger the league, the bigger the club, the less likelihood of playing never mind starting and we could be staring at another wealthy but underwhelming overall career.

This article isn’t about to turn into a list of reasons why he should choose Celtic over the rest, but I will deliver a few reasons why our club’s approach to young emerging talent should change.

We shouldn’t have reached this point, assuming he heads elsewhere football operations need to learn a few lessons here. I firmly believe there’s nothing wrong with buying a young player and leaving him with his parent club to develop. If we had signed Lennon in the summer but left him there for a year, everyone’s happy. Now we will more than likely lose him. That comes on the heels of young Cummings seemingly heading for the hills, losing Ben Doak a while back etc.
Young players especially need to play, so while I’d never wish to hinder a career or stockpile them ala Chelsea, I do wish to see almost an entire team of youth out on loan at a good level.

Tomorrow’s stars aren’t going to fall into our lap, okay sometimes they do like KT, but we actually can turn a profit if they are deemed not good enough ala Bosun Lawell, plus the cream will rise, ala Callum down south that time. The Admira Wacker partnership was a step in the right direction, but just not enough. We need more official partnerships, a better umbrella of friends in the footballing world to constantly blood the next Celtic player. We need to catch the next Lennon Miller at 15/16, sign up, and keep loaned out until developed enough to bring into the squad proper.

In reality, these tasks generally fall to the Director of Football, instead we got a Head of Football Operations,,,interchangeable I hope, because that’s part of their job, overseeing the conveyor belt. Brendan has enough on his plate never mind 3/4/5 years down the line, beyond his current tenure. A big club takes these things seriously and for good reason, I see Kwon on loan doing well, but nothing significant elsewhere.
I’d be delighted if this is the very last time I type that.
In my humble opinion every window should look to today, and tomorrow.
Buy and develop the next Miller elsewhere Celtic, then reap the profit. There’s plenty of talent out there and I could give big name after big name who actually did truly benefit from early loans/actually playing to help prove it works.
The first team squads doing well, it would be nice if tomorrow’s Bhoys were doing likewise.

By Mahe