Just off London Road a stunning new training complex has emerged alongside the old muddied Barrowfield pitches where the Lisbon Lions honed their skills, turning Celtic into Europe’s best team, a serious force on the continent over an eight year period.
A week on Friday, July 25, Celtic’s B team get their Lowland League campaign underway with a visit from Broxburn Athletic to Airdrie, Celtic’s home ground.
As is common at that level of football the young Celts will be playing on a plastic pitch, it is functional for the 5th/6th tier of the Scottish game but like the level of opponent it is unlikely that playing on plastic will develop any first team players.
Celtic will be playing in the Lowland League for the fifth season running, so far only Owen Moffat with a 62 minute appearance away to St Mirren in December 2021 has started an SPFL Premiership match from that background.
From the evidence of the friendlies against Cork City and Estela da Amadora it is unlikely that Brendan Rodgers will be turning to the B squad for much in the way of first team action in the campaign ahead.
In an effort to turn the tide, to produce players ready for first team action Celtic have invested in a brand new training complex on the site of their Barrowfield training area.
In September 2023 the club announced announced:
Final planning details for the new Centre will be confirmed very soon and it is hoped that work will begin on site shortly, with the project taking around 12-15 months to complete.
A year ago building work got underway, see the video at the bottom of this page, construction was expected to be completed by the turn of the year but season 24/25 ended without any use being made of the new training ground.
Typically the club has decided to keep quiet about the new development but the full size indoor pitch appears to have been ready earlier this year, from the occasional drone reports the site seems to have been completed in May but there hasn’t been a single comment from the club.
Perhaps they view it as a white elephant with the best in training facilities being provided for young players to go out and play the majority of their matches on plastic pitches against opponents such as Caledonian Braves, East Stirling, Stirling University, Berwick Rangers, Tranent and Albion Rovers.
None of those clubs are producing players for the SPFL Premiership yet Celtic continue with the idea that this is the pathway towards developing the next Callum McGregor, James Forrest or Kieran Tierney.
As young players move through the Academy they notice that there is no end product at Celtic, elsewhere at St Mirren, Kilmarnock and Motherwell players with talent will get a chance. All three of those clubs finished above Celtic in last season’s CAS U-18 league. Celtic lost 15 of their 28 matches.
CLICK HERE for Lowland League fixtures
Work in the Glasgow heat ☀️#CelticFC🍀 pic.twitter.com/5V2WQInyaU
— Celtic FC Women (@CelticFCWomen) July 11, 2025
It appears that the Women’s team has been using the Barrowfield Complex for pre-season training but there has been no confirmation from Celtic.
Just disband the ladies’ team. The powers that be are not in the slightest bit interested in it. From the squad that won the league ONE year ago, Craig, Clark and Gallagher are the only ones left. Absolutely shameful, why not pay the girls what they are worth? Shambles of a club!
— Rosemary Lucas (@dollydimples88) July 9, 2025
Having 10 of last season’s Women’s squad out of contract in June seems to have left them decimated while manager Elena Siduka is elsewhere just now covering the Women’s Euro’s for Swedish television.
🆕 We are delighted to announce the latest group of youngsters to sign their first professional contracts with the club ✍️
A huge congratulations to all seven players 👏#CelticFC🍀
— Celtic FC Academy (@CelticFCAcademy) July 2, 2025
Hassan Dembele, Nathan Meechan, Joseph Haney, Rocco Di Giacomo, Emmanuel Obidiwe, Lucas Clearie and Kayden Daly signed their deals, likely for the u-17 and u-19 squads in the season ahead. Two days after that article appeared Daly was coming off the bench in the friendly away to Queens Park.
Across the entire club there seems to be no-one prepared to acknowledge that the entire Academy set up is broken beyond repair, even a £12m new training complex isn’t going to change anything.
The continuing participation in the Lowland League confirms that the club has ran out of ideas.
The same set-ups, the same fixtures the same coaches are being used, to the surprise of no-one outside of the club it produces the same output.
Nothing, that is why Lennon Miller and Aaron Hickey got out to trust their footballing futures with Motherwell and Hearts.
Miller’s equivalent players at Celtic have a glass ceiling of the Lowland League, last summer Rocco Vata and Daniel Kelly took the well trodden path to England.
Both of them came from Celtic families, had been part of the Academy set up since primary school days and trusted the club with their first professional contracts.
It seems that Watford and Millwall carry more appeal that continuing to trust in the Celtic way.
A fantastic training complex is of little use to the Academy or Women’s teams if they don’t have the right environment, league set up to develop in. The Women’s Team have yet to announce where they will be playing their home matches, last season they switched from Airdrie to Hamilton Accies but New Douglas Park seems beset by problems.
The new Barrowfield complex is a top class facility, when winter bites at Lennoxtown it would be a surprise if first team training doesn’t switch to Barrowfield with the full size indoor pitch the key element.
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