After the goalless draw against Dundee United and subsequently making the league mathematically over we have the opportunity to field some players ahead of this summer’s vital rebuild.
Sunday’s starting lineup consisted of similar lineups we have witnessed throughout the season under recently departed Celtic manager Neil Lennon.
Many fans expected John Kennedy to change things up while in charge on an interim basis. I for one thought we would see the likes of Karamoko Dembele and Armstrong Oko-Flex make the step up from the reserves, despite the speculation about the duo’s futures.
Karamoko Dembele has only played twice for Celtic this season, Oko-Flex has also only featured twice. Their appearances both coming after the Dubai fiasco. For me, giving these stars of the future playing time would encourage both to put-pen-to-paper on a contract that would see them extend their stay at Celtic.
It would be nice to see Luca Connell play his part, especially after impressing at previous club Bolton by breaking into the first team aged 18 and earning a call up to his national team while doing so. Connell hasn’t featured at all this season and his debut should now be seen as a must.
20-year-old Ewan Henderson rose through the academy to earn a debut from the bench back in the 2017/18 season. The brother of Liam Henderson, a former player, has played just 3 times this season.
Celtic coughed up a reported fee of £5 million for Swiss centre forward Albian Ajeti in the summer transfer window. Despite playing 28 times this season Ajeti has struggled to get a string of starts under his belt, only starting 13. Ajeti has scored 6 goals and registered 2 assists.
Fellow striker Patryk Klimala arrived in Glasgow for a reported fee of £3.5 million in the January of 2019. The 22-year-old has played 24 times this season, 20 coming on from the Bench with only 4 starts.
In the time played, the Pole has scored 3 times.
All players discussed here should be given a fair chance. And maybe like Soro and Turnbull, they will take the opportunity given to them and become key players for the rest of this season and into the next.
I ran a poll on Twitter, to see if fans were like-minded. The poll was up for 90 minutes and received a total of 153 votes. Of the 153 votes, 91% agreed with me, that those in the reserves about to breakthrough and those who are currently fringe players should be given a chance to demonstrate their quality.
We don’t have anything to play for in the league this season so Kennedy must seize this opportunity and field some of these players, and who knows, we might find our next star.
Aaron Haire
Oxoflex and Dembele are no where near good enough even for this poor Celtic team.
Has to go two up front, with a floating midfield five. And at least one outright winger. And defenders that are not scared to put their body in and head a ball. As my arsehole moves inward at all set pieces. Youth is not always the answer. But needs be when the devil’s in goal.
Dembele and Oko-Flex have made it clear they don’t see their futures at CP so sod ’em. Connell and Henderson on the other hand, get them in right away. John Kennedy, though you won’t be here next season why not let those that may be our future try and win the SC? Give us some sign there may still be hope for the future! Whilst you’re at it get the obvious non-triers out the team immediately and out the door at the first opportunity. As things stand right now, with us taking players on trial and signing-up guys on pre-contract agreements it looks like it’s business as usual for Lawwell. He can get tae F- right now as well, get the bawbag on gardening leave and allow the place to air out a bit before McKay arrives. Christ just pay the SRU compo and get him now FFS!
Am I the only one who thinks losing the ten to a shower of masonically-assisted duds would be considerably less painful if Lenny had gone in November and the players had at least TRIED to remember how to kick a damn ball? The scum might be unbeaten but we haven’t even mounted anything resembling a serious threat since pretty much the start of the season and have absolutely handed it to them. Fair play to them for their run in Europe, even if against mostly lesser sides but then the filth are a lesser side after all. Could say the same about us in that regard, it feels like it’s been eons since we’ve been anything but a shambolic joke against teams from the continent. But all the vomit-inducing press hackery about how Sevco “left Celtic in the dust” etc. is a load of disingenuous pish. They were under ZERO pressure in the league after a handful of games, as it was becoming very clear that Lenny and the players were having some kind of issue they weren’t last year.
Maybe it was another “anything Sevco can do Celtic can do better” thing and as opposed to a post-Christmas Sevconian collapse we decided to do it over an entire season!
I hope every one of the horde of hunnery that descended upon George Square last night has caught the ‘rona and dies a terrible, terrible death. Then again, maybe it will be more painful for them to live to see us reclaim the title next year as they sell off their best players to survive and Slippy gets poached by Stoke or some other lower EPL/upper EFL side…