Celtic Board Did the Right Thing for Once – Opinion

Stephen Welsh leaving Celtic on a free transfer is one of those situations where two things can be true at the same time.

From a pure business perspective, it’s not ideal. Celtic probably could have generated some sort of fee for a player coming off the back of an excellent loan spell at Motherwell. There will also be supporters looking at it and wondering whether a new manager might have taken a different view on him after the season he just had.

That’s fair enough.

But Celtic owed Stephen Welsh this move.

For years now, Welsh has done pretty much everything asked of him without complaint. He came through the academy, lived the dream of making it into the first team and was regularly thrown into difficult situations during some turbulent periods at the club.

He never caused problems. Never agitated publicly. Never embarrassed the club.

And yet, despite periods where he genuinely looked capable of becoming a long-term squad option, his career continually stalled.

Back in January 2022, Welsh was being linked with Serie A clubs and there was a genuine sense his career trajectory was heading upwards. Since the beginning of the 2022/23 season though, he has played just 24 times for Celtic across four years.

Twenty-four.

That’s no way for a 26-year-old centre-back to develop.

At some stage, football clubs have to look beyond simply squeezing every possible penny out of a situation and do right by the player. This feels like one of those moments.

By mutually terminating the final year of his contract, Celtic are effectively giving Welsh the chance to properly restart his career.

It means he can go abroad if he wants. It means interested clubs in France or Poland can offer him better wages or a stronger signing-on package because there’s no transfer fee involved. It gives him freedom and leverage he probably hasn’t had for years.

Most importantly, it gives him the opportunity to actually play football consistently.

Because the reality is this: had Welsh remained at Celtic next season, there’s every chance we would’ve been having the exact same conversation again in 12 months. Sitting in the stands. Playing the occasional domestic cup game. Career standing still.

That would’ve benefited nobody.

There’s also been some talk online about whether Celtic should’ve used him as part of a deal with Motherwell involving players like Elijah Just or Tawanda Maswanhise.

But that ignores the financial reality.

Motherwell simply wouldn’t be able to afford Stephen Welsh’s wages permanently, even if they wanted to. Swap deals sound great in theory until you remember Scottish football economics exist in the real world.

Ultimately, this just feels like the correct outcome for everyone involved.

Celtic move on. Welsh gets a genuine fresh start. And hopefully he now goes and builds the kind of career many thought he was capable of years ago.

He’s earned that opportunity.