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
