Lawwell looks to develop talent

Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell hopes the Parkhead conveyer belt can produce even more first-team stars.

Manager Gordon Strachan has seen products from the youth system – Shaun Maloney and Stephen McManus – flourish this season while others like Aiden McGeady, David Marshall, Ross Wallace, Craig Beattie and Paul Lawson have bright futures.

And Lawwell hopes the heydays of years gone by, when youngsters progressed through the Hoops ranks as a matter of course, will rise again.

He said: “As a supporter this season has been great.

“When I first started to follow Celtic it was just natural [that] when somebody moved on, somebody moved up from the reserves to take their place. There were very few transfers.

“When Jim Craig moved on Danny McGrain came in, when Billy McNeill moved on it was George Connolly. It was a conveyor belt of talent.

“Those days are never going to come back but the more home-bred players you can get into the squad the better. That’s a big part of our strategy.

“We will always have highly-paid leaders in the squad, big players, players transferred in from other countries and we will also have, we hope in a greater proportion, home-bred players coming in.”

Lawwell believes a training base at Lennoxtown could help the youngsters to reach their potential.

He told Celtic View: “We have always had an academy and the academy is about people and the way that they are coached.

“Now if you give them the right facilities that can only be enhanced and that’s what Lennoxtown could be.

“Hopefully the successes we are having, in particular with the boys that we have moving up to the first team, will continue.

“Keeping that conveyer belt of talent going is what we are all here to do.”