{"id":442550,"date":"2026-05-11T02:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T02:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/442550\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T02:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T02:21:11","slug":"jack-aitchison-says-celtic-left-him-fuming-after-historic-breakthrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/442550\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Aitchison says Celtic left him ‘fuming’ after historic breakthrough"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Add as preferred source on Google <\/a> <\/p>\n

Jack Aitchison was hugely rated as a young player at Celtic.<\/p>\n

Ten years on, though, he is best-known as the answer to the quiz question: who is Celtic\u2019s<\/a> youngest-ever player and goalscorer?<\/p>\n

Aged just 16 years and 71 days, he scored with his first touch in a 7-0 win against Motherwell<\/a> on the final day of the 2015-16 season.<\/p>\n

In the end, he would make just nine more senior appearances for the club. Reflecting on the summer of his departure, Aitchison<\/a> has revealed that it left him \u2018fuming\u2019.<\/p>\n

Academy players are leaving Celtic at an unprecedented rate\u2026 <\/p>\n

\"CelticCredit: Ian MacNicol\/Getty Images Jack Aitchison: My Celtic exit hurt<\/p>\n

Reflecting on his exit, Aitchison told the Daily Record:<\/a> \u201cYeah, I was gutted. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy mum and dad were on the pitch after that first game and Ronny Deila said I was going to be a first-team player. I worked really hard over the off-season.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Viljami Sinisalo details Kasper Schmeichel background role at Celtic<\/a><\/p>\n

\"CelticPhoto by Ian MacNicol\/Getty images<\/p>\n

\u201cThen Brendan came in. That kind of calibre of manager, I was like, \u2018wow\u2019. He was never really going to risk youngsters in his first season though.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe went and signed Moussa Dembele and the next season Odsonne Edouard for millions of pounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrendan was good to be fair. Straight away he sat me down. I was scoring loads of goals at youth level, but he told me what I wasn\u2019t good at. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just about goals, you need to work hard, defend, hold it up and make unselfish runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went back with the youth team and worked on that. I was still scoring goals. I was in head of youth Chris McCart\u2019s office at least once a week, saying, when am I going back up to the first team?<\/p>\n

\u201cEven at that young age, I was frustrated. I returned from a really good first loan at Forest Green and thought I was going away with the first team on pre-season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t get to go. And that really hurt. Boys that had stuck around at Celtic playing youth football went. But I went on loan to play first team football, did well and didn\u2019t get to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was fuming, if I\u2019m being honest. That\u2019s when I realised my time was up at Celtic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey offered me a contract extension. But I thought, \u2018if somebody\u2019s getting a benefit from me it\u2019ll be somebody else\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a big decision to leave but I still believe it was the right one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celtic have bloated their squad with a high volume of \u2018project\u2019 signings over the last decade\u2026 <\/p>\n

\"CelticPhoto by Steve Welsh\/Getty Images Jack Aitchison\u2019s career since leaving Celtic<\/p>\n

Aitchison mentions his loan at Forest Green Rovers.<\/a> There, he made his mark at League Two level in England.<\/p>\n

He left Celtic to join Barnsley,<\/a> immediately moving to Stevenage on loan. After that, he returned to FGR, appearing in all 46 of their league games that season.<\/p>\n

Aitchison returned to Scottish football with Motherwell<\/a> in 2023, but didn\u2019t last long. He has since made over 100 appearances for Exeter City.<\/p>\n

Aged 26, he has just been relegated from League One with the Grecians.<\/p>\n

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