WINNING the Glasgow Cup this evening will be the short-term goal for the Head of Celtic’s Academy, Tommy McIntyre, when his under-20 side take on their Rangers counterparts on home turf. But the longer-term goal of getting these players playing regularly at Celtic Park for the first-team will always be his priority.
McIntyre is proud of Celtic’s track record in recent years in blooding their young players at the top level, and that many of them have managed to stay there.
So, while his eyes will firmly be on the prize as the young Celts take on their Glasgow rivals tonight, the bigger picture of providing talent to the first-team manager is always his main focus.
“Celtic traditionally are renowned for winning trophies, but the be all and end all for me is to develop young players and get them into the first team.” McIntyre said.
“At the top end, yes, it’s result-driven, and while it is nice to win, for me the biggest prize is to see these players develop and get them as close as they can to the first team.”
“If you look at the number of players we’ve got who have come through the system and played in the first team, then it is remarkable.
“Long may that continue, but you do get phases where it is rich. But even if you get one player, it’s been worth it.
“We’ve been fortunate that we’ve had a few over the years and it is good for the young players coming up to see there is a clear pathway into the first team.
“That’s important, because if they can see that it gives them that clarity that if they work hard and get a little bit of luck, there are openings for them.
“It’s a fabulous incentive for the boys to play the game there because it’s a fantastic stadium.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here