Newcastle United’s Stuart Findlay might regret Celtic exit

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Does the 21-year-old regret joining Newcastle United instead of staying at Celtic?

Last July, Stuart Findlay raised a few eyebrows by leaving Celtic to join then-Championship side Newcastle United.

Fast forward a year and the 21-year-old centre-back has made only one senior appearance for Newcastle, though has established himself as a key figure in the Under-23 side.

But had the youngster stayed at Celtic, his career might’ve been on an upward trajectory.

It has been a little over 12 months since Findlay left Brendan Rodgers’s side but his first-team prospects might have been brighter in Glasgow than they are at Newcastle.

At the moment, his task of playing first-team football looks ominous, with Ciaran Clark, Grant Hanley, Jamal Lascelles, Chancel Mbemba and Florian Lejeune being his competition at centre-back.

North of the border, however, the competition is nowhere near as fierce and it just so happens that Celtic need a central defender.

Dedryck Boyata is ruled out for three months, while unhappy and injured Erik Sviatchenko is linked with a move away. At the moment, Jozo Simunovic and Kristoffer Ajer might’ve been the only things standing between him and senior football under Rodgers.

At 21, Findlay needs regular football and another season with the Under-23s won’t do a lot for his development.

Of course, you could argue that he could not have predicted Celtic’s current crisis at centre-back, but he could have predicted that Newcastle would have won promotion to the Premier League and thus making his route to the first team even tougher.

Long term, he may be fully vindicated in moving to the North-East but, at the moment, it looks like a midsjudgement. With a bit more patience, he could’ve been challenging for a Champions League qualifier this week.