Calvin Miller and Anthony Ralson have become first-team players at Celtic but Jamie McCart is still waiting for his chance.
Jamie McCart told the Scottish Sun after joining St Mirren on a three-month loan that he dreams of becoming the next homegrown prospect to make the breakthrough at Celtic.
The Glasgow-born defender has seen Under-20 team-mates Calvin Miller and Tony Ralston establish themselves in Celtic’s defence under Brendan Rodgers. But McCart himself is still waiting patiently to make his first-team bow for the Scottish champions.
“It’s always the dream to force my way into the Celtic first team,” McCart, the son of Celtic’s Academy chief Chris, told the Scottish Sun.
But with The Hoops suffering a defensive injury crisis so severe that Rodgers has admitted to targeting a new centre-half in the January transfer window, Reading’s £5 million-rated Liam Moore a priority per the Daily Record, should Celtic have given an opportunity to the Scotland Under-21 international rather than send him out to second tier St Mirren?
The fact that McCart is playing in the Championship this season seems odd enough considering that he proved himself in the top flight during an eleven-game spell at Inverness in the second half of 2016/17.
And while Celtic would be asking a lot of the inexperienced McCart to replace Erik Sviatchenko, Dedryck Boyata or Jozo Simunovic, Ralston and Miller came into the side and performed impressively – so there’s no reason to believe the 20-year-old could not make the same impact.
A composed and intelligent defender, his former Inverness manager Richie Foran told Herald Scotland in March that McCart was set for big things.
So perhaps Rodgers should put that cheque book away and put his trust in Celtic’s latest highly-promising academy star.
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