Opinion: Celtic’s reluctance to sell 23-year-old is understandable

The Celtic future of Liam Scales is something that could be worth discussing over the next few months, as the player is on loan at Aberdeen until the end of season 2022/23, and the Pittodrie club are eager to make the loan move for the 23-year-old a permanent one.

Celtic aren’t in favour of that though, and The Scottish Sun reports comments from Aberdeen boss Jim Goodwin, who reveals that the Hoops don’t want to sell the player but he hopes that discussions can take place in January.

It is no shock that Celtic don’t want to sell Scales, as the Hoops will be looking to see how he develops at Aberdeen. If the player can do well, then there might still be a future for Scales at Celtic, and it should be remembered that he is under contract until 2025.

Scales has found it difficult to get into the Celtic side since arriving at the club from Shamrock Rovers, but it seems as if he is going to be first choice at centre-back for Aberdeen, a position that he has not played in for the Hoops, where he played at left-back.

If Scales has an excellent season for Aberdeen, he could return to Celtic Park in 2023 as a first-team option for the Hoops, but then the player might feel that he has more chances of playing regular football at Aberdeen, and will want to move on a permanent deal.

That is for the future, and at the moment it makes sense that Celtic aren’t willing to give up on the player, he has too much time on his contract left for the Hoops to do that.

Sending players to other Premiership clubs on loan is always a risk for the Hoops, as it can work out in a few ways. the move can help the player become a Celtic regular – as that is what happened to Kristoffer Ajer and Ryan Christie – or the player rarely features for their loan team and the move turns out to be a bit of a waste of time – as happened to Liam Shaw at Motherwell last season.

It does seem that Scales is going to feature for Aberdeen on a regular basis in the upcoming season, and that could help his Celtic future, but that remains to be seem. For the moment though, Celtic are doing the right thing in not contemplating letting the player leave the club at this moment in time.