There is quite a strange pattern of events occurring at Celtic at the moment. A subtle shift has emerged concerning the club’s younger players that may need to be addressed at some point in the near future.

Daniel Kelly is a name that many people - both at Celtic and in the stands – have been excited about. The 18-year-old only made his debut this January but made quite the impression as he stepped out onto the field versus Buckie Thistle. Just over a month later, he would score his first goal for the club in his second appearance for his boyhood team, replacing the injured captain Callum McGregor at half-time. The pick of the goals on the night, Kelly’s thunderous strike put his name on the map concerning the Celtic midfield.

When that strike hit the back of Dundee’s net in Glasgow – along with six others in a 7-1 rout – nobody would have expected the youngster’s Celtic career to only last four more games. Many tipped him to become a first-team starter in the coming years – some even speculated that they were witnessing the birth of a future Celtic captain. Unless the club buy him back from Millwall further down the line, that will not be the case.

In truth, the writing has been on the wall for Kelly’s Celtic career since Brendan Rodgers spoke openly about his contractual situation last month. The absence of the midfielder during pre-season was a surprising one, though the manager made it clear why this was the case. He said: “There's no impasse. Daniel, like Rocco Vata before him, has been offered a deal.

“With the greatest respect, I have worked with young players, and I know the levels of young players and where they're at from a technical perspective and a financial perspective. Rocco was offered a contract, and he was going to be one of the three strikers at Celtic but he decided that wasn't going to be for him, so he left.

“That is absolutely fine, and we wish him all the very best. Similarly Daniel, as a young player, has been offered a really good contract by the club. It’s a contract that would see him come into the first-team squad and play and perform and develop because he has a lot of development to do.

“I spoke with the agents and the player some months back to say, ‘listen, if we can't tidy this up by the summer, then it's very hard to be with the team in pre-season’. It's as simple as that. I like Daniel, but he has a lot of work to do, and I feel that for him and his family, this is a great place for him to be able to do that.

“You've got a manager who sees a talent there, who sees the physicality that he has and the areas he needs to brush up on. “What a great club and place this is for him to be able to do that. If that's not enough then that's ok. It's absolutely fine.

“You'll go somewhere else and maybe play. But you never know. We’ve got until December but it's just disappointing at this stage that it hasn't happened because he would have had a great opportunity this pre-season. I just know the value both in terms of the players' qualities and the contract offer.

“The offers that the club gave were very good for young players in terms of where they're at.”

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Quite a bold statement for the incumbent manager to make, but one that underlined exactly where both the player, and the club stood with each other. The parallels with Vata and Kelly are symmetrical, too, as the pair are both going to be plying their trade in the second-best league in England at Watford and Millwall respectively.

Two players who were touted as being destined for big things in the colours of Celtic have now left the club to join Championship teams, but for what reason? Is it purely for financial gain at this age, with these clubs both prepared to pay the higher figures in wages for younger players to develop in their teams? Or is there a bigger issue at play concerning the supposed ‘pathway’ between the B team/academy and the first-team squad?

Perhaps not as applicable due to his age, but Bosun Lawal has moved on from Celtic to Stoke City – who also play in the Championship. Is this now the level that the club’s young players are at? You only need to look back a couple of years to the calibre of teams that Celtic’s best young talents were going to. Barry Hepburn and Liam Morrison both went to Bayern Munich, while Ben Doak joined Liverpool. Even further back, Islam Feruz infamously moved from the academy to Chelsea, though the less said about that, the better.

Maybe the likes of Vata and Kelly have seen the mostly negative fortunes of these players taking the big leap to elite clubs and their well-run academies. After all, once they sign, they will need to mix it with the young players who are already in and around the set-up. Out of all the players mentioned – and there are more – only Doak has been able to make the breakthrough, with the dreaded loan system impacting the careers of the rest. Doak is very likely the only player that would get anywhere near Celtic’s first-team presently, too. The grass is very often not greener on the other side.

Even still, things COULD have been different if these players had stayed put, though this is not a guarantee. The importance of luck is paramount in a young footballer’s career, especially nowadays. Look at the example of Kieran Tierney, who made up the numbers in training under Ronny Deila one morning before catching the eye when mixing it with the big boys. McGregor was the same after a loan deal at Notts County. Anthony Ralston and Stephen Welsh had to bide their time, with James Forrest the only player to well and truly breakthrough at Celtic in the last decade or so.

Regardless, the issue of Celtic’s best young players leaving the club needs to be addressed, and fast.