Celtic ran a reserve side from their early days, known at the time as the Crusaders. Other clubs in the 1880s also gave their reserve sides distinctive names, with Rangers calling their Second XI the Swifts , and Queens Park naming their reserves the Strollers. [1]
Celtic's first known involvement in reserve league football, was their participation in the Scottish Combination league in 1896. Several Scottish League clubs fielded 2nd XIs ('A' sides), as well as Queens Park Strollers. [2] However, by the 1900s Celtic manager Willie Maley was only using a small, if versatile, squad of players, and the decision was made to stop fielding a reserve team altogether. [3] In 1909, a new Scottish Reserve League was set up, again often including at least one non-reserve side of a non-league club in each of its seasons. [2] Celtic did not participate. [4] The league was disbanded during World War I, but effectively re-established in 1919 as the Scottish Alliance League. As with previous incarnations, this reserve league also contained the first XI of several non-league sides. [2] Celtic took part for the first few seasons, and won the championship in 1921–22, however withdrew again after that for what is presumed were financial reasons. [3] This appeared an unwise decision. Rangers went on to dominate Scottish football in the 1920s, and Celtic appeared to struggle without a reserve team to help blend younger players into the club's first team. [3]
The club did re-introduce a reserve team in 1930, and won three Alliance championships in 1934, 1937 and 1938, and the Second XI Cup in 1935 and 1936. [5] Malky MacDonald, Johnny Crum, George Paterson, Jimmy Delaney, John Divers and Willie Buchan all emerged during this time from the reserve side and went on to form the nucleus of the Celtic first team that won the league championship in 1936 and 1938, and the Scottish Cup in 1937. [5] In 1936, Celtic fielded trialist Mohammed Salim in two Alliance league matches, with him becoming the first footballer from the Indian sub-continent to play for a European club. [6] A league AGM in 1938, resulted in the non-league sides being removed and the league became exclusive to First Division reserve sides. The advent of World War II, however, once again saw the suspension of national reserve league football in Scotland, although regional leagues were set up. [2] [7]
The national Reserve League restarted at the end of the war, once again mirroring the sixteen club top-tier division. The subsequent years into the 1950s saw various changes to the leagues, but Celtic's achievements at reserve level were undistinguished, with two fourth-place finishes in 1952 and 1954 their highest positions. [7] The Scottish (Reserve) League was set up in 1955, again mirroring the First Division although there were a number of seasons when not all of those clubs took part. This set-up, with minor variations, continued up until 1975. [2] Jock Stein's appointment in 1957 as reserve team coach saw an upturn in Celtic's commitment to reserve team football. Future star players such as Pat Crerand, Billy McNeill, John Clark and Bertie Auld all emerged at Celtic during this time. The reserves won the Second XI Cup in 1958 (thrashing Rangers 8–2 on aggregate) and the reserve league title a year later. [7] From 1958 up to 1966, Celtic also fielded a reserve side (effectively a 3rd XI) in the Combined Reserve League. [8] Although Stein left in 1960 to manage Dunfermline Athletic, [9] promising players continued to emerge from the reserves, such as Bobby Murdoch, Jimmy Johnstone and George Connelly. [7]
The mid-1960s saw the emergence of one of Celtic's most notable reserve sides, a group that became known as the Quality Street Kids. Several became regulars in the first-team side, winning major honours and going on to represent Scotland at full international level, most notably Kenny Dalglish and Danny McGrain. [10] In August 1968, the reserves needed to defeat Partick Thistle by at least seven goals to win their Reserve League Cup group section; Celtic won 12–0, with Lou Macari scoring four goals. [7] That same year, the Celtic reserves played the Scotland national football team in a practice match; the young Celtic won 5–2. [11] [10] During season 1970–71, Celtic won all three main reserve honours - league, Reserve League Cup and Second XI Cup - scoring 157 goals in the process and becoming the first reserve team in Scotland to win the treble. [7]
In 1975, the Scottish League was reorganized into Premier-First-Second. The Premier clubs were assigned to the Premier Reserve League and the lower league clubs used varying regionalised sections and midweek competitions. [2] Key players continued to emerge from the youths and reserves; Roy Aitken, Tommy Burns and George McCluskey in the late 1970s, [12] and Pat Bonner, Charlie Nicholas and Paul McStay in the 1980s. [13] [14] [15] When the Scottish Premier League was founded in 1998, the reserve league was replaced by an under 21 league with some overage players permitted. [2] Various changes to this set-up were made in subsequent years, eventually leading to the SPFL Development League which was contested by the Under-20 teams of 17 Scottish Professional Football League clubs, including Celtic, up to the end of season 2017–18. [16] [17] During the 2010s, James Forrest, Callum McGregor and Kieran Tierney all progressed as youths at Celtic and became established first-team players at the club. [18] Tierney was later transferred to Arsenal for a transfer fee of £25m, a record fee for a Scottish footballer. [19]
In July 2018, it was reported that reserve leagues would be reintroduced in lieu of the development leagues that had been in place since 2009. The top tier of the new SPFL Reserve League featured 18 clubs, whilst a second-tier reserve League comprised nine clubs. Other than a minimum age of 16, no age restrictions applied to the leagues. [20] At the end of its first season (2018–19), Celtic – along with several other clubs – intimated that they would withdraw from the Reserve League to play a variety of challenge matches. [21] They later entered a small league (under-21 plus three overage) along with three other Scottish clubs and Brentford and Huddersfield Town from the English leagues. [22]
In the 2021/22 season, Celtic B (and Rangers B) began playing in the Lowland Football League (the fifth tier of the senior setup). There was a proposal to include them in an expanded Scottish League Two (fourth tier) [23] still under consideration by the SPFL for the year after that. [24]
Cup competitions
There were numerous cup competitions for reserve sides since the earliest days; e.g. the Edinburgh 2nd XI Cup first played in the 1870s and the Scottish 2nd XI Cup which existed from 1882 to 1988. A plethora of cups were introduced during the 1880s but the advent of professionalism a decade later put pressure on club finances, and during the 1890s these tournaments gradually fell away. [25] The Scottish 2nd XI Cup was first competed for during season 1881–82 and was competed for each season up until 1988. The Scottish Reserve League Cup was introduced in 1945 and was last held in season 2013–14. [26] In June 2016, it was announced that the Challenge Cup would be expanded to include Under-20 sides from each Scottish Premiership club. [27] In the 2016-17 edition, Celtic U20 won their opening tie against Annan Athletic and then eliminated Cowdenbeath (both of the fourth level) before being knocked out by the then-League 1 club Livingston; they progressed further than all other Under-20s teams. In the 2017–18 Challenge Cup, the side were beaten by Annan Athletic in the first round. [28]
International tournaments
Celtic's U20s were the first Scottish participants in the NextGen Series - a youth tournament based on the UEFA Champions League. In the 2011–12 season, Celtic were drawn against Barcelona, Manchester City and Marseille, and finished third in their group. [29] Celtic confirmed that they would play in the 2012–13 edition tournament as well; [30] the team were again eliminated in the Group Stage.
In 2013–14 Celtic's senior team qualified for the Champions League group stages, meaning that the youth squad could play in the first edition of the UEFA Youth League. In the following season there was no chance to participate in that competition due to the first team's failure to qualify, but in 2015–16 an additional route into the tournament opened up to domestic youth (Under-17) champions, and Celtic qualified as the Scottish holders of that title. [31] After navigating two rounds, Celtic were eliminated on penalties by Valencia.
In 2016–17 the senior team succeeded in reaching the Champions League group stage, so the youth squad also entered that season's Youth League via that route (they had also qualified through the Under-17 path again in any case). [32] In the Youth League, the Group Stage mirrored the tough draw in the senior tournament, and Celtic collected just one point and finished fourth. Qualification was the same in 2017–18 – the Under-17s won the Scottish league [33] but in any case the first team reached the Champions League groups.
Celtic also successfully applied to compete in the 2014–15, 2015–16 and 2016–17 editions of the England-based Premier League International Cup.
