A Celtic old boy wants to reward the players that have bought under 19 success to the club.

Most clubs have a youth policy to save on the investment of buying new players during the transfer windows. Celtic have been successful with the youngsters as they inevitably win their league. However, how many make it through the ranks to the first team. Celtic legend Bertie Auld for one thinks that the youngsters should be forcing Gordon Strachan to introduce new faces to his squad this summer from club resources. The league and cup winners have already signed Scott Brown and Chris Killen from Hibs and Scott McDonald from Motherwell. There are also reports from Italy that claim manager Strachan is close to signing Serie A duo Gennaro Delvecchio and Massimo Donati in a £5million deal. Auld, however, has questioned why Strachan has not been able to call upon players from the club's successful reserve team - a de facto under-21 side - and the under-19 team.

Auld said: "We've won the reserve league about six times in a row and the under-19 league four or five times before this season. But, at this moment, there are no players ready to come through, which is a bit strange. At Celtic Football Club, the motto has always been 'The reserve team today, the first team tomorrow'. My dad told me that, even in the 1950s, if you had the ability you would get a chance at Celtic Park. So he (Strachan) can't think that they have got that ability to come through. First and foremost, it's not important to win leagues and cups at that level, but it is important that players come through to the first team. We can't have that if we are bringing in other players and trying to bring in players from abroad."

Auld, however, is hoping the two Italian targets can match up to former fans' favourite Paolo Di Canio if they do join the Glasgow club. Di Canio arrived at Parkhead in 1996 and his successful season in Glasgow, where he scored 15 goals in 37 games, made him a cult hero among the Hoops faithful. Auld said: "I remember Fergus McCann, the man who used to own Celtic, speaking to me in Las Vegas after he had just signed Di Canio and he asked me what kind of player I thought he was. To be truthful, although I thought he was a good player, I thought he was at the wrong end of his career. But when he came, he was a bit special and he played for the jersey. What I loved about him was his fire, he didn't like to get beaten, whether in a tackle or in the game. That's something that you can't put into a player but it's something that he needs. I've not really seen an awful lot of Italian football recently but if those two players have got quality then that's something that we need. We've got enough players, but we need good players. We've won the league two years on the trot, we've let players go and we still need to let players go. But the players that we bring in must have ability to entertain because Celtic fans want to be entertained."
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