David Pleat shares how Celtic are damaging Scottish football
By Harvey Byrne
BBC pundit and former Tottenham man David Pleat feels as though the big teams in Scotland like Celtic are damaging the national team as well as Scottish football in general.
The Hoops are currently on a fine run of five straight league titles and they are well on course to achieve their sixth as they sit 25 points clear at the top of the league.
However, surprisingly the Bhoys had just two of their players in Scotland’s 20-man squad which drew 1-1 with Canada on Wednesday evening in the forms of goalkeeper Craig Gordon and forward Leigh Griffiths.
This has led to pundits like Pleat believing that teams like Celtic are damaging Scottish football due to their insistence of scouring the foreign markets for players rather than bringing through their own.
“I’m not sure what’s going wrong in Scotland, but they’re certainly not encouraging,” told Pleat to BBC Five Live on Thursday evening when discussing the lack of Scottish talent.
“There must still be kids out there desperate to emulate great Scottish players and they can’t be getting encouragement. They certainly can’t be getting the coaching.
“You want players, young players with natural talent to be progressed quickly and I don’t see this with the senior teams.
“The big teams like Celtic have got foreign players in there, in Scotland. They don’t need foreign players. (Brendan) Rodgers has gone up there to win Championships and good luck to him. He’s not going to lose the title is he. He’s going to be in the top two every year.
“I just see Scottish football now as that the chasm has got so great between the top and the rest and of course the rest feel that in order to cope with the top they have to play experienced players and I feel that’s possibly the major problem.”
Despite Pleat’s claims, there are still a number of Scottish nationals who play regularly for Celtic, including Kieran Tierney, Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong.
But, it cannot be denied that the Hoops have had large success in buying young players from around Europe and selling them on for huge sums, like current Premier League stars Victor Wanyama and Virgil van Dijk.
Additionally, Brendan Rodgers has failed to bring in even one senior Scotsman since taking charge in the summer, but he has unearthed another couple of stars in Moussa Dembele and Scott Sinclair.
In other Celtic news, Stefan Johansen has named this Hoops ace as amazingly good.
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