Celtic’s Youth Academy is something that has been the centre of attention for years now but recently, there has been a shift in focus on the youngsters coming through into the first team.

It’s no secret that losing top talents like Ben Doak, Leo Hjelde and Vincent Angelini in recent years has been a huge bugbear of mine and, no doubt, with the Celtic fans as well.

But most recently, Brendan Rodgers has been blooding through the likes of young Daniel Kelly, Mitchel Frame and Rocco Vata in an attempt to get them ready for life as a Celtic first-team player.

So it does seem that there is a steady flow of young players who are progressing well at the club. But are there more?

It seems that there are and this has been confirmed by none other than Barry Ferguson.

How the former Rangers captain has the inside knowledge of Celtic’s academy I’ll never know but it seems that he has been told that there is a good batch of young and upcoming players at the club.

Ferguson said [The Go Radio Football Show], “There are some [young players] in the system.

“I’ve spoken to a few people at Rangers and they said there’s a crop of 14-15-year-old boys that certainly have got the potential.

“It’s okay having a potential but it’s once they come in full time and how they progress.

“And I’ve heard similar at Celtic that’s there some good young boys. And you just want to see these young boys being given an opportunity.”

I certainly hope that is the case as the Celtic fans love nothing more than seeing a youngster progress through the ranks and into the first team.

Not since Kieran Tierney have we seen a player stamp his authority at Celtic and that, to be honest, is simply not good enough.

There is work to be done on that front but it is pleasing to see Rodgers give the current batch of Celtic youngsters motivation to succeed with his introduction of the likes of Kelly and Vata.

In other news, ‘Clearly’… Brendan Rodgers talks up Celtic midfielder and shares ‘great’ injury update.