Thomas Robert

Airdrie boss Ian Murray has confirmed that Thomas Robert spent time on trial at Celtic over the last fortnight.

The 20 year-old has been a revelation since joining from Montpellier this summer and he's also attracted strong interest from Aberdeen.


Robert has trained at Lennoxtown with Celtic's first-team and Murray confirmed that it was a successful spell.

He said: "I can provide clarity on Thomas being in with Celtic and training with them.


"It's brilliant for him personally and brilliant for the club because it shows that we are doing something right.

It was a no-brainer to let him go on trial with Celtic. It was a chance for Thomas to showcase himself and train with top level players and coaches.

"He was in a top level training environment which is second to none. He was working with top players and for any footballer, it's an exciting time time to do that.


It's testament to Thomas, his teammates and the club because we are starting to build those connections."


"We are taking young players in and improving them which is our model. Thomas has grabbed lots of headlines and he's a great asset to us.

"Thomas is now back with us, he's been tested and trained with us yesterday. He's adapted to everything that we've asked him to do exceptionally well.



Airdrie are committed to unearthing young talents and providing them a platform to impress in League One.

Murray believes it's imperative to be honest with players and he wants to play a key role in their development to benefit Airdrie


We are not going to stand in players' way or beg them to stay. We will always be honest with our players, give them the chance to play but they have to take it.

It's not a conveyor belt but we are completely transparent with our players but there will be a time when we want to keep them as well."

"We've done really well in that aspect but the hard thing is finding the next one."

 

Celtic will continue to keep tabs on Thomas Robert between now and the end of the season after he impressed during his trial, Football Insider can reveal.



The 20-year-old attacker has returned to Airdrieonians after a training stint at Lennoxtown over the past fortnight.




A Celtic source has told Football Insider the club have not yet offered a deal to Robert, or held talks with Airdrie over a potential transfer.


The Scottish champions will continue to monitor the rising star but will hold fire on making a firm decision for now.

This is due to the state of flux over the appointment of a director of football as well as a new manager.


Manager Ian Murray has confirmed Robert’s time at Celtic and insisted the Scottish League One outfit will not stand in his way over a potential summer move.


Celtic are overhauling their entire set-up and, as revealed by Football Insider, are planning to dispense with director of football operations Nick Hammond and recruitment chief Gary Penrice at the end of the season.

Robert, who is the son of legendary former Newcastle United winger Laurent Robert, has attracted interest from clubs north and south of the border after his dazzling start in Scotland for Airdrie.


His 14 matches yielded four goals and two assists before the League One season in Scotland was suspended.


Similar to his famous footballing father, Robert is an attacking player and is a versatile forward who can play down both flanks as well as behind the main centre-forward.

 

Hobestly tgink the club should set up a partnership with Airdrie and loan them 1 or 2 bodies each season

 

Hun *

 

and apparently was in Celtic Park to sign, we * that. But, if we spent that on a League 1 player our fans would have been going mental about it, even though it definitely looks worth it at this point.

 

This link feels like one we’ll be angry we let slip btw, not got any reason to back that up because I’ve not seen him play.

Just feels like one.

 

There's no guarantee he would have been a success for us. Plus folk would have went mental if we sold Eddie and replaced him with Toney which is what Lennon wanted apparently

 

Nothing is guaranteed but he looks a player, and I don’t think it was down to Eddy leaving for him to be here. Might have been what Lenny wanted, but him being at Celtic Park to sign and us deciding not to and getting Ajeti looks like we made a choice between them as Eddy’s replacement for next year. Much like us getting Eddy in while Dembele was still here.

I think most of our fans would have said get the Premiership player rather than League 1 though.

 

For me, Toney is one of those players with such obvious qualities that the league doesn't matter; those qualities shine through at each level. We've had of those in recent years, haven't we? There was a reason I was desperate to sign Toney instead of Ajeti because one is very clearly the superior player. Yes, Ajeti was at an EPL club (a lot of * players are) and scored a few for Basel but to me, he's just a * Gary Hooper. I found the arrogance regarding Toney and the price tag really strange because we experience that first hand every year.

I could be wrong of course and Toney could still "flop", equally Ajeti might be successful (I doubt it), but Toney could have been the difference.. * up that transfer foreshadowed the entire season.

 

Absolutely agree of your assesment of him as a player, just think at the time most of our fans had not seen him play and wouldn’t know that.

There was a lot of uproar about Hooper at the time as well, “From Robbie Keane to Gary Hooper” until we seen him play.

As it is, I reckon that’ll be as annoying as leaving Kramaric in the car park to sign Scepovic.

I’m purely just saying, if we put out one of our biggest ever fees for a League One player we would have complained.

 

Hooper was one of my favourite players in recent times, and one that just "fit" us perfectly like Forster, Lustig, Roberts etc.

We've definitely shot ourselves in the * multiple times over the years with failed transfers and people we could have signed but didn't. I really hope we do our best to stop self-sabotaging from now on. Feels like a very long time since we signed a player and they instantly improved us. Going to need a few in the summer.

Regarding Robert, I've never seen him but I would take the punt anyway, we desperately need wingers.

 

Lustig and Forster were another two we weren’t happy with at first as a fanbase.

I actually do really agree with what you’re saying but a lot of the time we say it with the benefit of hindsight.

I can remember * going bonkers on here, and in general because we had Plietikosa on trial, and signed Forster instead. He was a good proven keeper on trial as well, we went for the youngster we had on loan that a lot of people didn’t rate.

 

Watching Dumbarton v airdrie just now, he's not stood out at all.