Every now and again an academy player bursts onto the first-team scene gets every fan overly excited and then disappears. At Celtic, there are plenty of examples and ex-shot stopper David Marshall is certainly one.

I have a very vivid memory of his performance against Barcelona and Rangers just a few days later. I remember thinking that Celtic had unlocked a treasure chest when Marshall went flying threw the air with the wrong hand to claw a Rangers shot from the top corner.

But those two games, in that week, were to be the keeper’s highlight reel for Celtic. In fairness, the Scotland international went on to have an excellent career down in England. Not at 35, the player is looking back with Si Ferry on YouTube to reflect on whether or not he should have shown more fight for the No1 jersey at Paradise.

“Probably when I look back now it was a maybe rushed decision. I was in, out, in, out. I just felt I didn’t want to do that.”

“As a young player, you aren’t hoping that you’re in and out all the time for the first team. I knew then that I really had to do something. I wanted to go and play every Saturday. times.” 

Marshall said he knew after conceding nine goals in two games and the arrival of Artur Boruc that he felt his time at Celtic was over.

“To be fair, Artur was doing really well in training as well. It was disappointing. That was the time deep down I knew I was leaving. If we beat Artmedia and Motherwell, you never know what could have happened.”

Celtic have an unbelievable record of bringing players through their academy into the first team but fans need to be cautious about getting too excited too soon about young players, two consecutive seasons is a good time to judge a player, not two games.

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