Striker’s call may end up being fortuitous for Celtic

The 18-year-old striker has yet to make his senior debut under Brendan Rodgers, but he has impressed with the B team, finding the net in each of his two outings this season.

Earlier this week TCW reported that Osmand was given the chance to join a Scottish Championship side on loan. Shaun Maloney was reportedly keen to secure the deal, believing consistent senior minutes would speed up the youngster’s progress.

Osmand ultimately decided not to take the loan option, choosing instead to remain at Celtic and continue developing under Rodgers at Lennoxtown and the B team coaches rather than seeking experience elsewhere at this point in his career.

There have been a number of loan deals for Celtic’s youngsters that have been sanctioned in the past few months – including most recently Sean McArdle to Partick Thistle. Jude Bonnar and Kyle Ure are currently at Ayr United under Scott Brown’s stewardship whilst Josh Clarke, Ben McPherson and McArdle are under the guidance of Mark Wilson at the Jags.

Therefore, it is surprising that Osmand has decided to stay at Celtic, especially given he has been handed no opportunities since arriving from Fulham. It is clear he came under the bracket of a ‘club signing’ with the view of developing him so one day he can return to an English Premier League side.

Sadly, there were too many ‘club signings’ such as Hayato Inamura, Shin Yamada and Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, who like Osmand, are nowhere to be seen on matchdays.

This reinforces the disastrous handling of the summer transfer window. Looking to loan three of our 11 summer signings is simply unacceptable. Someone hasn’t done their job right. So far, no accountability has been taken. Hopefully, over the next few weeks, that will change.

However with Celtic struggling for goals having a talented young striker like Callum Osmand might come in usual for Brendan Rodgers this season as he tried to get his attack to click after drawing a blank in five games already this season.

Conor Spence