'Scottish FA report will gather dust just like young players it's supposed to help'

While the drama of Matt O’Riley’s move to Brighton was playing out last week, there was another, slightly more low-key exit, from Celtic.

Daniel Kelly, 18, slipped out of Glasgow quietly and headed for Millwall.

And so the only Scottish player aged 21 or under who made any Premiership appearances for the league champions last season was gone. He played five times for Brendan Rodgers, all off the bench.

Celtic offered him a new contract, but Kelly wanted to leave, presumably driven by the desire to play more often.

Rodgers spoke about the need for young Celtic players to show patience and cited the examples of James Forrest, Callum McGregor, Stephen Welsh and Anthony Ralston as proof of academy boys making it into the first team.

Kelly, if he was so inclined, could have countered with some examples of his own that bolster his own argument about having to leave.

Mitchel Frame, who played a part in Celtic’s Champions League win over Feyenoord last December, hasn’t seen first-team action since.

Rocco Vata, after six brief appearances between December 2022 and February 2024, is now at Watford.

Bosun Lawal, with just a three-minute cameo against Greenock Morton in the Scottish Cup in January 2023, is now at Stoke.

Ben Summers was given 11 minutes in two games against Kilmarnock and Aberdeen in April and May 2023, but hasn’t been seen since in the Celtic first team.

Going back to early 2021, there was Karamoko Dembele and Owen Moffat, Ben Doak and Dane Murray (two Champions League appearances in 2021 and nothing since), Cameron Harper and Armstrong Oxo-Flex.

Most of those have now left the club in pursuit of the first-team minutes that Celtic could not deliver. The club would have wanted to keep some of them, no doubt.

But this is the predicament. Celtic need to give game-time to the A-Listers who are charged with delivering trophies while trying to achieve progress in Europe.

Making space for youth (Scottish or otherwise) at the same time has proven a difficult juggling act for successive managers.

The one player aged 21 or under who has appeared this season has been Francis Turley, who came on in the closing minutes against St Mirren on Sunday.

Turley is from Belfast. No Scottish player, 21 or under, has featured in a match-day squad for Celtic in any of their three Premiership games so far.

'Numbers are arresting, but not surprising'

Which leads us to the Scottish FA’s comprehensive report on the transition of Scottish players to first-team football.

The document is a weighty one in every sense. It could be seen as a call to arms or a plaintive cry.

Through stats, case studies at home and abroad, and a long list of consultation with key decision-makers in Scottish football, the piece of work illustrates how badly Scotland is performing in comparison to practically every other league in Europe when it comes to giving minutes to young players.

The numbers are arresting, but not surprising.

Rangers gave a total of 29 minutes to Scottish under-21 players in all of last season, Celtic gave 89 (all of them to Kelly).

Dundee were top with 3,538 minutes and Aberdeen second with 2,290. As a whole, the league is lagging miles behind.

The Scottish FA report tries to address the arguments that are traditionally trotted out about the inherent risk of trusting youth - too much pressure on managers who are too fearful of losing their jobs to gamble on kids and a top division that is cut-throat and offers little room for experimentation on promising academy boys.

It’s a fascinating document that most football people will see as valuable and thought-provoking, but the chances of it shifting mindsets among managers, chief executives and owners? Sadly, experience tells us the chances are close to zero.

There’s more prospect of it gathering dust, just like other attempts to focus on the challenges of the domestic game. The stats in the early weeks of this season follow a similar trend to the myriad detail available in this study of last term.

Eighteen Scottish players aged 21 and under have been given game-time in the opening three rounds of the Premiership.

Dundee (four) and Motherwell (three) account for seven of the 18. Only nine of the 18 could be considered regulars. That’s nine from an entire playing pool across all clubs of close to 200. Celtic, Hearts and Aberdeen haven’t given any minutes to young Scottish players so far.

There is good news in all of this. Tony Docherty has also included 16-year-old Sebastian Lockhead in all of his Premiership match-day squads.

Motherwell, meanwhile, have two teenagers as mainstays of their team - Euan Wilson (19) and the outstanding Lennon Miller (18).

Connor Barron, still 21 until later in the week, has established himself as a Rangers regular. At 21, Lyall Cameron is one of the best midfield players in the country.

Nineteen Scottish under-21s have appeared in match-day squads without seeing action. There’s hope that some, or all, of them will get their chance sooner or later.

The work published last week started a conversation, but these things tend to die away soon enough. Other issues take hold.

Everybody moves on - until another report is produced and then the talking shops continue again for a spell before they, too, fall silent. It’s the rhythm of life in Scottish football.