Journalist Michael Gannon has talked about the future of Celtic central defender Stephen Welsh.
Gannon appeared as a guest on the latest episode of the Record Celtic podcast and the panel talked about numerous issues involving the Parkhead-based club.
One topic of discussion was Welsh and his future at Celtic. The journalist made it clear that the defender might need a loan move away from the club.
Welsh is a product of the Celtic youth academy and the 21-year-old defender spent the first half of the 2019/20 season on loan at Morton. He has played for Celtic at various levels, turning out at Under-21, Under-17 and Under-20 level (as per Transfermarkt).
Should Celtic loan out Stephen Welsh in the summer?
Yes
No
Gannon described Welsh to be a ‘natural defender’ and feels that the 21-year-old has a lot of time on his hands to develop further.
He made it clear: “I think he is a natural defender, he’s still got a lot of development to do, I still think Celtic need to go out and buy another centre-half, at least one – especially with Christopher Jullien out long-term, don’t know when he’s going to come back.
“But in terms of his development, you look at guys like Jack Hendry getting rave reviews in Belgium, he’s 25. For centre-halves, 21 is nothing.
“So he’s got a lot of time on his hands. It might be that there’s a loan spell somewhere – the English lower leagues, Championship, League One, something like that.”
TIF Thoughts on Welsh’s future…
Welsh has made ten Premiership starts this season, starting in 11 games in all competitions in the current campaign having broken through to the first team in February.
In the league, he has started eight of the last nine games, he has picked up a rating of 7.05/10, with only nine Celtic players picking up better ratings than the 21-year-old (as per WhoScored).
This suggests that he’s had a pretty good time in the club’s first team and he deserves credit for that. The Hoops have already lost Hatem Abd Elhamed and Shane Duffy’s loan stint at the club ends in the summer. Meanwhile, Kristoffer Ajer has also been linked with a move to Milan.
This shows that the Hoops might need more defenders next season and because of that, they should keep hold of Welsh.