The former Celtic player believes the numerous loan signings from down south is hampering the development of Scottish youngsters.
The 53-capped international highlighted the fact that with clubs having the freedom to land as many loan players as they wish, existing youngsters at clubs are being pushed out of the team, which is severely detrimental to their development.
The former Celt used Charly Musonda’s arrival at Celtic Park as an example, explaining that on the back of the player’s exciting debut performance against Hearts, he believes the likes of Callum McGregor – who has done remarkably well to cement his place as a first team regular – may suffer in terms of reduced minutes on the pitch.
“I think we’ll have to wait and see where he is going to fit into this team,” Rough said on Musonda, “Obviously if you’re coming from Chelsea you’d be expecting to play 90 minutes, so it’ll be interesting to see where [Brendan Rodgers] fits him into the team.
“That was [Callum] McGregor and [Scott] Sinclair left out [against Hearts] so it just shows you the abundance of players that they’ve got.”
Rough went on to explain his frustrations over the number of loan arrivals and what it means for young Scottish talent.
To counter this, the Hibernian Hall of Famer suggested introducing a cap of three loan arrivals per window which would, according to him, allow existing players a better chance of continuing to play.
“I’m just getting a bit frustrated with the amount of loan players that come up [to Scotland],” Rough added, “I’m just thinking about young players who have maybe broken into the first team and had a wee run then all of a sudden 2 or 3 players come up.”
“It looks as if Callum [McGregor] might be one of the people that suffer from not playing.
“I’ve said it before, I think it should be capped at 3 loan players in any one window.”
Should Musonda really replace McGregor in the Celtic team, there is no doubt that it would hamper the young Scot’s development. Musonda will be gone in 18 months and Celtic are highly unlikely to be able to afford the youngster after his loan expires.
McGregor, 24, having just broken onto the international scene, is in a crucial period of his career where he needs to be playing regularly as he heads into the prime years of his football career.
If his playing time is limited during this crucial period, this may seriously hamper his chances of going on to become a stalwart for both club and country, which is the last thing Scotland needs are they look to continue their recent run of good form.
Alternatively, McGregor should relish the opportunity to come head-to-head for a spot in the team with one of Europe’s brightest prospects and could kick one nicely from the increased competition for places.
The intra-club rivalry will be be interesting to follow in the latter half of this season, moving on into next term.
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