Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers recently spoke about the need for the club to have a more coherent link between its Academy and the first team.
He’s eager to utilise the exciting young talent coming through Lennoxtown and today the club created a new role to help that happen.
Celtic have announced the creation of a Professional Player Pathway Manager role within the club, working to progress young players at the club – both internally and out on loan.
Current Celtic B coach Darren O’Dea has been named in the new job reporting to the Head of Academy Chris McCart and working closely with Rodgers himself.
O’Dea will work with Celtic coaches across age groups as well as develop and maintain relationships with other clubs in Scotland and abroad, also managing any loan opportunities that arise.
Brendan Rodgers on Darren O’Dea appointment
Rodgers said in a statement [Celtic FC]: “Celtic has such a rich history of creating and developing its own players and is something which I am hugely passionate about.
“This important new position will allow us to give real focus to ensuring the very best possible pathway and level of support to bringing our younger players successfully into the first-team environment, so they too can create their own history at the club.
“Darren has great experience in this area and he is the perfect candidate to work between our Academy and first team and I am sure his work will achieve very positive results for the club and our supporters.”
O’Dea himself added: “I am really looking forward to giving everything to this exciting new opportunity.
“Having been being fortunate enough to be part of a Celtic first-team environment in my career I am passionate about working to give other young players this same opportunity.
“In this new role, I will be working between our Academy structure and the first-team environment to ensure that we do all we can to provide the very best pathway and levels of support to allow our young players to reach their full potential and to ultimately deliver at first-team level.”
As someone who has travelled the road of being a young player emerging into the senior set-up, as well as coached extensively at Lennoxtown, O’Dea is indeed well-placed to perform this kind of function.
Some fans have been left frustrated to see young players such as Ben Doak walk out of the club at an early age in recent seasons and it would be fantastic to see others in the future follow in the footsteps of stalwarts such as Callum McGregor and James Forrest.
Hopefully, the creation of this role makes that more likely moving forward. It’s good to see Celtic take steps to help make the manager’s vision a reality.