We’ve seen Scottish Premiership giants Celtic pick up multiple young talents from English clubs and add them to their B-team ranks in recent years. There were two such deals in the summer of 2021 as striker Joey Dawson joined from Scunthorpe United’s under-18s, and centre-back Bosun Lawal, now on loan at Fleetwood, arrived from Watford’s under-18s.
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The central defender reportedly looks set for a move away from Parkhead this year.
Then, 18 months ago, they recruited another defender, this time from a Premier League side, as Justin Osagie made the switch from West Ham. After focusing primarily on promoting in-house players last summer, they now have their eye on another gem from south of the border.
Casey now in Celtic’s sights
According to journalist Pete O’Rourke, Celtic are now keeping tabs on Patrick Casey at Charlton Athletic. In a report for Football Insider, he adds that the “prolific forward” is apparently regarded as “one of the best young prospects to come through at The Valley in recent years”.
Celtic scouts have made regular trips to watch him in action, but he’s also attracting interest from Premier League Brighton and Belgian Pro League duo Royale Union Saint-Gilloise and Club Brugge.
Casey is a citizen of the Republic of Ireland, but Northern Ireland and England are both hopeful that they convince him to declare his allegiances as part of a “huge” international tug-of-war.
As a marker of the excitement Casey is generating in London, he made his League One debut as a late substitute in a game against Oxford United on New Year’s Day, only a couple of weeks after he’d turned 18. As you can see in the table below, that makes him one of the 10 youngest players to feature in the English third-tier this term. What’s more, it ranks him as one of the 30 youngest appearance-makers in Charlton’s entire history.
Youngest players in League One this season | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Player | Club | Age (Y/M/D) |
1 | Jake Richards | Exeter City | 16/1/1 |
2 | Jack Shorrock | Port Vale | 16/7/28 |
3 | Tom King | Cheltenham Town | 16/10/16 |
4 | Micah Mbick | Charlton Athletic | 17/1/1 |
5 | Harvey Watts | Shrewsbury Town | 17/2/2 |
6 | Travis Hernes | Shrewsbury Town | 17/9/1 |
7 | Freddy Wilcox | Cheltenham Town | 17/9/12 |
8 | Fabio Jalo | Barnsley | 17/10/11 |
9 | Patrick Casey | Charlton Athletic | 18/0/13 |
10 | Dajaune Brown | Derby County | 18/0/15 |
“Prolific” is certainly an accurate label when you consider that he thundered in 42 goals at various levels last season and has followed that up with another 31 already in 2023/24. No wonder, then, that the Republic of Ireland called him up to an under-19 training camp last summer and Charlton handed him his first professional contract, with academy director Steve Avory raving about his “huge potential”.
Recent Charlton youth products include Joe Gomez, who’s become a European and English champion at Liverpool, Ezri Konsa, who’s started 23 league games this year for an Aston Villa side chasing the top four, and Ademola Lookman, who won Atalanta’s player of the season award for 22/23. Casey will want to enjoy similar success in his career, and he’s more likely to achieve that at Celtic or Brighton than he is at Charlton.
