Celtic’s partnership with Austrian side to ‘intensify’ plus Irish opportunities | OneFootball

Celtic FC’s 2024 Talent Scouting Strategy: Eyeing Promising Stars in the League of Ireland and an expansion of the partnership with Austrian Bundesliga 2 club Admira Wacker…

Celtic recently formed a partnership with Austrian Bundesliga 2 club Admira Wacker and it seems the bond is set to grow even stronger. That’s according to Admira Wacker boss Thomas Pratl, who said the links between the club are ready to be expanded. According to Pratl delegates from the Austrian side will arrive in Glasgow next week to attend the Champions League clash with Feyenoord as they look to ‘intensify’ their dialogue with Celtic officials.

Celtic’s highly rated former England U18s goalkeeper Tobi Oluwayemi is out on a development loan at Austrian Bundesliga 2 club Admira Wacker this season.. Photo: David Davies

Celtic have already sent youth prospects defender Matthew Anderson and keeper Tobi Oluwayemi over to Austria this season on loan deals. And it looks like more youth prospects could be heading to Austria to taste first team football, something that would be more beneficial to them than playing in the Lowland League in my opinion.

Maybe some exciting youth prospects could be heading over to Glasgow in return, so it looks like a partnership that is certainly worth exploring further. Indeed Celtic have to be as innovative as possible in looking to develop first team players of the future.

Many European clubs have set ups like this and it’s certainly a step forward. Perhaps the success of this partnership will be a springboard for the club to try similar tie ups with other European clubs, for example Shamrock Rovers, where Celtic’s largest shareholder Dermot Desmond already owns a sizeable shareholding in the League of Ireland side.

Dermot Desmond is seen prior to the Celtic vs St Mirren Cinch Premiership match at Celtic Park on May 20, 2023 (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Dermot Desmond bought a 25% stake in Shamrock Rovers in 2020, investing £2m into the Irish side and would be ideally placed to broker a deal between the two clubs. This would allow Celtic academy prospects to play in Ireland and see Celtic have a better structure for recruiting the best talent in the Emerald Isle which these days tends to head straight to England.

Former League of Ireland player Liam Scales has successfully established himself as a first pick player in the Celtic first team this season.

It would also give Celtic supporters in Ireland a chance to watch some of the best young talent from Celtic and help the club engage better with our Irish support. Celtic fans using their Bet365 promo code stand to win when backing the Hoops domestically but it’s been a very different story in the Champions League, where Celtic are winless over eleven games in two seasons. Maybe next midweek Celtic will prove their doubters wrong by defeating Dutch Champions Feyenoord at Celtic Park.

Many Celtic supporters in Ireland now talk about having two teams that they support, Celtic and one of numerous English Premier League sides, with the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, the Manchester clubs and probably now Tottenham featuring prominently.

Empty seats are preferred to more paying customers supporting the away team at many Scottish Premiership grounds.

This has been caused by the wall-to-wall broadcasting of the English game and to be fair their product looks considerably better than the Scottish Premiership with our plastic ‘all weather’ pitches and empty seats, like at McDiarmid Park on our recent visit. Why smaller clubs like St Johnstone don’t want the money is a mystery, they could easily have given Celtic half of the stand opposite their main stand and pocketed around £150,000.

That could have funded a new signing in January who could keep them in the top flight.

Just an Ordinary Bhoy

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