Few reservations over 'Celtic II'

Published on Saturday 28 February 2009 18:55

NO-ONE WOULD mistake places such as Ochilview, Cliftonhill and Borough Briggs for comfort zones. Indeed, this is precisely the "real world" that Gordon Strachan believes Celtic's youngsters, should they fail to make the senior breakthrough in their teenage years, need survive in to learn the laws of the football jungle. A world in which the lot of any hosts would also be improved.

Celtic entering a team in the Third Division of the Scottish Football league has been exercising the minds of the entire football fraternity this week. The idea is hardly groundbreaking. All the major teams from Spain, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Norway have 'B', '2' or 'II' clubs in lower leagues. This perhaps accounts for reports Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell had discussed the idea with SFL counterpart David Longmuir not being followed by all manner of characters lining up to pick holes in it. Instead, Third Division chairmen and managers were broadly supportive. And by the end of the week, Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson came out in favour of joining Celtic in entering a reserve team in Scotland's fourth tier.

Thompson acknowledged "a number of hurdles that would have to be overcome" to make this happen. There seems little question that the impetus for it is the SPL binning its reserve league after this season. To Strachan, it had become "redundant" anyway.

"Players should be earlier in the real world trying to make a living, or impress people, or getting what we have to deal with every week: criticism, fans moaning, groaning, all the rest of it," the Celtic manager says. "And being responsible for their game and the consequences of not playing well, rather than the 'ah, well' after a reserve game. I do believe if you are not in the first team at 19, it will be hard thereafter.

"(After 19] I think young players stagnate. They lose their drive, lose their love of the game. That is another side to it: you have to have players just to play reserve games. That is a comfortable world at Celtic and Rangers. It has been shown in the last couple of years when we've sent some out and it's too horrible a world out there. It is like sending a domesticated animal out into the wild."

The concern of those opposed to SPL teams fielding reserve sides in the lower levels is that they would find the challenges too tame. Such are Celtic's resources, even if they were restricted to fielding an under-23 side from a squad ring-fenced for the SFL in all probability they would still win the league.

At reserve level, Celtic's spend would be similar to Gretna, who were able to race through all three divisions. No doubt, as in most nations with B teams, the promotion of these to the very top flight, or to the level wherein their senior side resided, would be denied to them. As would cup competitions. But even if Celtic started off in the Third Division and climbed to the First Division, the SFL could be cheapened in the process. In another respect, however, it would be far from cheapened.

"Clubs might get a bigger crowd if Celtic turn up with new faces or young kids. That might help them out financially," says Strachan

, admitting the one "problem" concerns finding a ground for any second team's games.

The importance of their B teams to some of the European game's grandees should not be underestimated. Markus Babbel, Owen Hargreaves and Dietmar Hamann all played for Bayern Munich Amateure, as they used to be known. Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez both played for Madrid's B team, then called Castilla, and began his coaching career with them. Two years ago he championed the introduction of second teams in the English Football League, and was roundly dismissed as a crank. Significantly, he ventured that they would need to be placed in the Championship.

If the SFL approves the fielding of second teams in the lower divisions, it is expected Rangers – so far quiet on the issue – Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibernian, would follow Celtic and United's lead. The formation of Scottish B teams could dovetail with the creation of an SPL2. It is believed that eight First Division clubs could swell SPL membership to 20, which would be split into two 10-team set-ups. Were that to happen, the SFL could still retain three divisions of 10 by inviting in a couple of progressive non-league teams and the likely half dozen B team applicants, a group that would undoubtedly enhance what Longmuir has termed "the commercial viability" of Scotland's lower divisions.