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Highlights
- Celtic have an academy talent who could star over new summer signing Bernardo.
- He’s scored six goals in five youth team games already this season.
- The player is a hugely exciting talent and bagged 11 times last term.
Celtic majority shareholder Dermot Desmond and the rest of the board backed Brendan Rodgers throughout the summer transfer window with nine new signings.
Who did Celtic sign this summer?
The Hoops head coach was able to bolster his playing squad in a number of positions in spite of the club coming off the back of a treble-winning campaign.
South Korean enforcer Hyeok-kyu Kwon and Norwegian talent Odin Thiago Holm both arrived on permanent deals alongside Paulo Bernardo on loan from Benfica to improve his options in the middle of the park.
The defence was also strengthened with the arrivals of Swedish titan Gustaf Lagerbielke and Polish ace Maik Nawrocki for undisclosed fees, whilst Nat Phillips has also joined on loan from Premier League side Liverpool until the January transfer window.
However, the former Leicester City boss could also add to his first-team group by dipping into the academy to promote one of the outstanding talents in the B team side – Rocco Vata.
How good is Rocco Vata?
New signing Paulo Bernardo could need to move aside in order for the 18-year-old starlet to finally be unleashed as his form so far this season at youth level has been nothing short of phenomenal.
The Glasgow-born maestro has racked up six goals in five games for Celtic B and is showcasing his ability to offer a consistent goalscoring threat from an attacking midfield position.
He has found the back of the net five times in four Lowland League outings and scored once in one Challenge Cup match for the youthful Bhoys and Rodgers must now pay attention to the teenage gem’s displays as he could have the potential to make a big impact for the first-team.
His fantastic performances this season have not come out of the blue, either, as Vata enjoyed a successful 2022/23 campaign with 11 goals and one assist in 24 matches for the B team.
The magical ace, who was reported to be on his way out of Parkhead this summer before eventually staying put, racked up nine goals and one assist in 16 Lowland League clashes and earned himself opportunities with Ange Postecoglou’s squad.
Vata made four appearances in the Scottish Premiership for Celtic last season and averaged a Sofascore rating of 6.77 over 44 minutes of action on the pitch.
Despite his limited minutes, the Republic of Ireland U21 international caught the eye with his impressive creativity as he provided his teammates with two ‘big chances’ and completed 89% of his attempted passes, as per Sofascore.
For context, Daizen Maeda only created six ‘big chances’ in 1925 minutes of Premiership football and captain Callum McGregor produced four ‘big chances’ for the attackers in a whopping 2759 minutes of game time.
This illustrates how special Vata’s contributions in just 44 minutes were during the 2022/23 campaign as the talented youngster justified Postecoglou’s decision to bring him into the first-team fold.
The Irish dynamo’s form this season now shows that he is too good to be playing academy football as it has been far too easy for him to dominate matches at that level with his goalscoring prowess from midfield. As such, Rodgers should finally unleash him for the Hoops.
His statistics suggest that the £280-per-week ace has the potential to offer more than new signing Bernardo, who is yet to prove himself to be as impressive as Vata – at youth or senior level.
How good is Paulo Bernardo?
The 21-year-old central midfielder’s career statistics do not suggest that he is as good as the Celtic academy star when it comes to providing attacking contributions from the middle of the park.
Bernardo spent the second half of the 2022/23 campaign on loan with FC Pacos de Ferreira and he managed two goals and zero ‘big chances’ created in 13 Liga Portugal appearances, whilst the Portugal U21 international also completed 82% of his attempted passes.
That came after the Benfica prospect failed to score a single goal and created one ‘big chance’ for his teammates in 17 top-flight outings for his parent club throughout the previous season.
In total, the Portuguese talent has scored two goals and assisted one in 39 senior games in his career to date, which is one goal involvement every 13 clashes on average from midfield.
This came after Bernardo managed seven goals and five assists in 38 matches for Benfica B, two goals and one assist in 23 outings for their U23 side, and two strikes in nine U19 appearances.
Therefore, he racked up 11 goals and six assists in 70 youth team games for the Portuguese club, which is an average of one goal involvement every 4.12 matches.
Whereas, Vata, who has been capped five times by Ireland’s U19s, has scored 17 goals and assisted one in 29 academy games for the Scottish giants; a goal contribution every 1.61 outings on average.
This suggests that the Celtic prodigy, who was once hailed as an “exciting” talent by scout Jacek Kulig, could offer more quality in midfield than Bernardo when it comes to making a big impact at the top end of the pitch on a consistent basis.
He has already shown glimpses of his quality at first-team level with his showings for Postecoglou’s side last season and Rodgers must now offer him the chance to showcase his talent again this term, as the potential is there for him to be a better option than Bernardo – who is three years older than him.
At the age of 18, Vata is a player with plenty of time left ahead of him to develop and improve, which is why more exposure to senior football could help his growth as he learns how to navigate a senior environment.
The teenage wizard, who coach Dara O’Dea previously claimed has a killer attitude that “never stops”, deserves to be rewarded for his sensational form for the B team and that is why Rodgers must unleash him ahead of Bernardo over the coming weeks and months.