West Ham United leading race to sign two Celtic targets

Celtic have always looked to sign some of the top rated youngsters from around Scotland, in hopes that they can develop them into first-team starters. Things have become a lot more difficult in that respect in recent years as clubs from around Europe seem to be scouting Scottish talents a lot more heavily these days.

It is not hard to understand why. A number of Scottish players have gone abroad and shown that they can perform in the top five European leagues from the get go.

At the moment, it looks like Celtic have their eyes on two Airdrieonians players. But Premier League clubs are seemingly ahead of them in the race to sign them.

According to West Ham Zone, reported via The Sun on Sunday‘s print edition [17 November, page 59] that Airdrieonians twins Cole and Dylan Williams are wanted by West Ham United, Celtic and Southampton. The English duo lead the chase for the brothers.

West Ham United leading race to sign two Celtic targets

Airdrieonians are believed to be keen to keeping the brothers but it remains to be seen what the future holds for them. Both of them are midfielders and considering the level of teams seemingly interested in signing them, there is clearly a lot of talent there.

Celtic might have a tough time convincing talents to join them if English clubs come calling. And it is not just because of the financial side of things, or the attraction of playing in the Premier League.

Celtic's recent record of bringing through players from the academy and establishing them in the first-team is not good. The last to successfully make that jump and become a starter was Kieran Tierney. It has been more than five years since he left to join Arsenal. So, it is easy to understand why youngsters might not be confident about making a move to Parkhead currently.