Youth football expert: Celtic and Rangers hoover up best talent in Scotland for Premier League clubs to cherry-pick

We’re delighted to welcome the founder of Kinetic Academy Harry Hudson as our exclusive columnist. Each week the youth football expert will be giving his views on the biggest talking points on wonderkids across the UK…

To find the best of the best in youth football in Scotland, you would only have to visit one city as the Glasgow monopoly grows stronger.

Both Rangers and Celtic have been scouring the nation for decades to find the best young talent available and signing them to their academies, leaving the rest of Scottish football having to fight for the rest.

The Light Blues, in particular, were active over the summer of 2022 in signing plenty of teenagers from across the nation and even further as they picked up five youngsters in just one day [The Sun].

Youth football expert Harry Hudson, who founded the Kinetic Academy in South London, believes that Scotland is a very easy place for top Premier League sides to scout due to the condensed area in which the best players gather.

“There are players like Andy Robertson who have gone on to play at the top level,” Hudson told The Football Wonderkids. “The problem is that there probably isn’t the same quantity of top players.

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“Especially ones that will be of a high level in the Premier League, but clubs are definitely looking more local now.

“I’m not totally sure if Scotland comes under the same Brexit rules as England does, to be honest, there could still be complications there but I think it is easier for players to move from England to Scotland than vice versa.

“The easy thing with Scottish football is that Celtic and Rangers hoover up all the best talent so if you’re a top-four club in England you only need to look at those two clubs.”

Liverpool recently signed Ben Doak from Celtic and he has gone on to make his debut for the Reds while Rangers lost Rory Wilson to Aston Villa.

In other Kinetic Academy news, graduate Nico Lawrence has been fast-tracked into the Southampton first team and Hudson is overjoyed at his development.