With much anticipation ahead of the 2021 campaign for a historic tenth title in a row for Celtic, we look at three players the club could loan out next season to develop.
It’s no secret that the Celtic squad has incredible depth and talent from the top-down, having won nine consecutive league titles and numerous accolades. With so much talent, it’s hard to have young stars break through for playing time, and thus some need to be loaned out to see time and develop. Here are three players we speculate could do well to see a loan spell and earn some playing time.
Karamoko Dembélé
First is Dembélé, the 17-year-old winger. Just a year ago, he was the subject of a potential transfer battle between the Hoops and some of Europe’s biggest clubs- PSG, Arsenal, and Juventus. Joining the club at Parkhead from the age of 10 in 2013, he’s shown signs of a potentially wonderful career.
He made strides with the club’s youth teams, becoming the youngest player to make an appearance for the U-20 Club at 13 years old in 2016. In the post-match report by Matthew Newton, he was described as a “diminutive play-maker didn’t look out of place and played his part in the closing stages.”
In his first senior appearance in 2019 against Hearts, he displayed a sense of confidence along with some great touch on the ball and good passing ability, earning much praise from manager Neil Lennon:
"“He is the type of player that you want at Celtic. He gets the crowd off their feet with his football intelligence. Obviously we need to keep a lid on it, but it’s great that the fans have seen the glimpse of the future. The kid is 16 and we just want to develop him in the right way. He has been training with the first team and I had no hesitation giving him 45 minutes.”"
He was also named in 2019 as one of six future stars of European football by L’Equipe.
While Lennon had rejected a previous bid in January to loan him to Gillingham, if the young star is not set to feature prominently for the side in 2021, it could be beneficial to see him loaned out if the right club comes calling so he may garner more experience under his belt after only three appearances for the senior side in two seasons.