Karamoko Dembele!!

Nah, cause it wouldn’t happen.

It’s * stupid. Let’s not give somebody 20 mins even if we’re 6-1 up on aggregate, in case we end up losing the tie.

Nae danger.

 

Exactly. It’s complete nonsense and him playing devil’s advocate for the sake of it.

 

I see no harm in giving Dembele some minutes.

 

No disrespect to Sarajevo cause they seem like a good club but there's not a chance we lose 3 goals to them at Parkhead - whether Dembele is in the team or not.

 

What to like give them a check over, make sure they're good to go.

 

He’s already proved he can deal with the pressure.


Give the boy a chance in the games.

 

Game experience.

 

See no harm in giving him time if we're in a commanding position.

 

We already are in a commanding position though. 3 away goals and playing on our own park.

 

Yes we are but I don't think I'd start him.

 

I don't agree. You just look at Broony at the weekend, sprinting back and putting in tackles as if it was a competitive game. We can joke that "Broony doesn't do friendlies", but the truth is that Broony is a very smart guy who doesn't do stuff for no reason.

IMHO his reason is that we have a CL qualifier on Wednesday and he knows how important mindset and mental sharpness are in these games.

We absolutely have to give game time to young players; bit CL qualifiers are definitely not the time, whatever the aggregate score.

 

Kinda mixed about this, I understand and agree with the 'complete' mindset approach to our European games because Europe is where we want to be, it creates much better nights than any domestic game and our interest domestically is being enhanced because of 10iar at the moment, if/when we achieve that Europe is going to become even more essential because our interest in winning the league is going to be based on qualifying for Europe not trying to increase any record should we achieve it.

So taking every game seriously, keeping the players tight as a unit is a very logical approach even if it might sound overkill. There is a discipline about it I like because that's essential in any success.

However, when we've got extra bright talent like Karamoko I think it's completely plausible to put him on the bench in a 1st Round Qualifier because this round is probably the only round were we might find ourselves in a very comfortable position during the 2nd leg and the only time we're ever going to be able to give young players European experience.

It's part of our appeal and how we sell Celtic to players, we can give them Europe. If we want to keep our brightest young players who are going to get financial offers we can't compete with then we have to offer them something else and that's Europe.

 

I agree with you here and think your last point is important. Seeing youngsters getting a bite of the Euro cherry might influence other youngsters like Liam Morrison.
Also, putting on a young player doesn't mean we're making ourselves weaker: I would expect any player, irrespective of age, would only get on if they have shown they are capable

 

Is there anything on this forum that doesn't get argued to death?

A young player getting some game time while we're out of sight in a tie, won't make the wheels come off ffs.

If we end up getting pumped out of Europe it won't be because Dembele got 20 mins against Sarajevo.

 

Exactly time people wised up

 

I would start him, these games are perfect to give him first team game time. He won't get many until the end of the season when the league is hopefully over, and with all due respect to sarajevo there is no chance they put us out here.

 

Ffs there's absolutely no chance Sarajevo beat us 3-0 at Parkhead. Give Karamoko a game.

 

Just while we're talking about giving youngsters a chance in Europe, brought to mind a guy I knew from my street in the 80's (Dougie McGuire), he played for Celtic a grand total of 4 times I believe but one of them was in a European tie..used to be a few youngsters would get a crack against Euro minnows..this was back in the 80's though so not quite the same rewards and pressure associated with European games but was always good to see the young guys given a chance.

 

A very fair post from @Swervedancer above by the way.

Regarding the last few posts, I want to be clear. I'm not against giving game time in Europe to youngsters that aren't that far away from the fist team anyway. I won't be at all surprised if Henderson gets some game time on Wednesday. It would make perfect sense in terms of his progression.

The situation with Dembele is different, he is incredibly inexperienced at senior level, having played less than a full competitive game. There's a process here that he has to go through. There's a natural progression; both in terms of building up slowly and in terms of walking before you can run.

His ability is not in doubt; his decision making needs SPL game time to develop though. We all saw him nearly give away a goal by pulling off a trick in our box on Saturday.

Genuinely, European qualifiers are not the time for this. I expect he will get domestic game time this year and will be in a similar position to Henderson by this time next year. At that point things will be different.

 

See, nailing it