Celtic head coach Brendan Rodgers has won the Scottish Premiership twice, and the League Cup and the SFA Cup once, since his return to the club in the summer of 2023.
The Northern Irish manager has yet to replicate the domestic treble that Ange Postecoglou ended his Hoops tenure with, though, and failed to qualify for the Champions League this season.
This means that the former Liverpool and Leicester City head coach, despite winning four trophies in two seasons so far, is not unquestionable at Parkhead.
One criticism that could be levelled at Rodgers is that he did not hand enough opportunities to academy graduates in his first two seasons back at Parkhead.
Academy graduates used
2
3
Academy graduate appearances
5
4
Academy graduate starts
0
0
Academy graduate minutes
90
25
As you can see in the table above, no academy graduate aged 21 or younger started a league game for Celtic in the 2023/24 or 2024/25 campaign.
However, 19-year-old full-back Colby Donovan has bucked the trend in the current season, having started in the 2-1 win over Kilmarnock in the Premiership last month.
Why Rodgers needs to give Donovan more minutes for Celtic
Injuries to Alistair Johnston and Anthony Ralston provided the academy graduate with an opportunity to start that game against Killie after the first international break of the season.
With both senior right-backs unavailable, Donovan also started the 4-0 win over Partick Thistle in the League Cup and the 1-1 draw with Red Star Belgrade in the Europa League last week.
However, the academy graduate was left as an unused substitute in the 0-0 draw with Hibernian in the Premiership last time out on Saturday, as Ralston returned from injury and played the full 90 minutes.
The more experienced Ralston, per Sofascore, won 25% (1/4) of his duels in the clash with Hibs, which comes after Donovan had shown good strength in his appearances against Kilmarnock and Red Star Belgrade.
Minutes
90
90
Clearances
7
0
Tackles made
1
3
Dribbled past
1x
0x
Duels won
5/9
6/11
Dribbles completed
1/2
2/3
As you can see in the table above, the teenage defender won the majority of his duels in both of those matches, whilst only being dribbled past once in 180 minutes of action.
Hopefully, Rodgers dropping him from the side to play Ralston on Saturday was more about rotation than it being a sign of things to come for the young full-back, because his performances for the first-team so far suggest that he deserves more opportunities to impress.
The Celtic manager’s record of providing young players with chances in the Premiership since his return to the club, as aforementioned, does not look great on paper, which may be a concern for Donovan moving forward.
Tying both the head coach’s reluctance to offer significant minutes to U21 players and academy graduates, along with Donovan’s rise to the first-team this season, there is a Celtic academy graduate whom the club may end up regretting letting go this summer.
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The 21-year-old left-back was released by the Scottish Premiership champions at the start of the summer, and made the move to Belgian side KV Kortrijk on a free transfer.
Why Celtic may regret releasing Matthew Anderson
Celtic may end up regretting releasing the Scottish talent because he has had a strong start to life at his new club and looks to be an even bigger full-back talent than Donovan.
Anderson did not play a single minute for the Hoops at first-team level, despite an impressive loan stint with Admira Wacker in Austria, and explained that he felt there was a better pathway for him abroad.
The young left-back said: “There’s a pathway of going abroad. Lennon’s [Miller] done it now as well. Max [Johnston] has been abroad. I think the success rate is probably more than staying in Scotland, for some reason, it just seems to work.”
That is in spite of Postecoglou claiming at the start of 2023 that there was a pathway for Anderson, in particular, as he predicted that the full-back would make an “impact” in the first-team by the summer of 2024.
Of course, Rodgers replaced the Australian head coach later that year, in the summer of 2023, and the Scottish defender never got his chance to shine in the first-team.
Instead, Anderson spent two seasons on loan in Austria with Admira Wacker, earning a place in the Team of the Season in the 2023/24 campaign, and racked up eight assists in 44 matches, per Transfermarkt.
The 21-year-old starlet, who was described as a “complete” player by Scottish-focused The Young Team on X, has delivered five assists in eight league games for Kortrijk this season, per Transfermarkt.
Appearances
8
2
Key passes per game
1.0
0.5
Big chances created
3
0
Tackles + interceptions per game
2.6
1.0
Ground duel success rate
59%
40%
Duels won per game
4.9
3.0
As you can see in the table above, the former Celtic whiz has produced more impressive performances than Donovan at league level so far this term, carrying a far greater threat at the top end of the pitch whilst also winning more duels and tackles per game.
Anderson also showed more promise as an attacking force from a full-back position than Donovan did at B team level for Celtic, with four goals and four assists in 25 matches compared to the right-back’s haul of three goals and one assist in 36 games, per Transfermarkt.
This means that the left-back was a bigger attacking talent at youth level. Now, his performances in Belgium suggest that he has translated that form to first-team football, whilst adding a defensive edge to his displays.
Therefore, Celtic may rue releasing Anderson this summer because his performances since moving on from the Hoops, and his displays at youth level, suggest that he may be an even bigger full-back talent than Donovan.