CAMERON HARPER has described his stint at Celtic as tough because the lack of any sort of pathway for the young lads to come through.
The midfielder made his permanent move to the New York Red Bulls last month and admitted it was frustrating at Celtic Park, lacking direction in a cut-throat environment.
“The contract talks started happening, there was no kind of agreement on anything.” Harper told ASN.
“When they shipped me back down to the reserves, that’s when I got it tough because there’s only a few guys there.
“There are about 5-10 guys there per day and people were out on loan. I would say maybe in September, it was getting pretty bad in terms of my place there. But I was still playing games, so it was it was OK.
“Leading up towards December, January, when I had a good idea about leaving, that’s when it kind of got a little bit uncomfortable.
“When I went there, I was 16, playing in the Development Academy in California.
“It wasn’t even an MLS team – so, it wasn’t too serious.
“Then to go from that straight to an environment where even at a under-18 level or under-23 we needed to win every game – it helped you become more serious.
“I realized I have to take my development very seriously if I really want to improve.
“That winning mentality, sometimes people can say: ‘oh, it’s about development over winning.’ And I agree – but when you need to win every game, that’s when you also develop because you can’t just take games off.
“Getting used to an environment where it’s pretty cutthroat, is definitely going to help in terms of coming to a first team environment at Red Bull which is also very cutthroat.”
It’s a massive thing the new manager is going to have to address when they come in.
There needs to be a tangible and clear path to the first team for those who show promise and are developing at the club.
There’s been a brick wall up for our young players as of late that has seen many promising young talents leave the club in search of alternative opportunities. Harper was certainly one of them.
We understand not every young player at the club is going to be a home run, but the lack of Lennoxtown graduates of late is concerning.
Hopefully, if it’s Eddie How to come in, he can sort this stuff out.
