Former Celtic youth player on trial at Leeds United

Leeds United are possibly looking to add another young player from outside England to the youth squad, but this time instead of going to Spain, the team has looked for talent a little closer to home.

Aidan McIlduff, who was released by Celtic FC eariler this year, is a 20 year old Scottish left back who came up through the ranks at the Celtic Academy. While he has been on the books at Celtic for years, he hasn’t pulled on the famous Hoops for the senior squad.

Leeds currently have the young defender on a trial, and it looks like he is going to get a chance to impress the brass at the Academy against Southampton as the U23s get set to take them on in a friendly later today. He already has appeared for Leeds U23s against Al-Ittihad earlier in the preseason.

McIlduff went out on loan from the Celtic youth team twice, once in the 2014-15 season to Scotland League Two team Clyde FC, and again in the 2016-17 season with Scotland League One side Queen’s Park. He made 13 appearances for Clyde in the 2014-15 season, scoring one goal, and went back to the Celtic youth team. He went out again on loan in the 2016-17 season to Queen’s Park, but only appeared on the pitch once for the Glasgow club, and his career has seemed to stall at Celtic after a promising beginning. He has one international cap at the U18 Level, coming back in 2014.

This isn’t going to be a signing for this season or for depth for the first team, at least not for a while. He might not ever make the first team at Leeds, but it’s still good to see the club bring in some different players. The club has been aggressively signing players for the Academy this summer, bringing in players from Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Real Valladolid in Spain. And while it’s a shot in the dark at the youth level, competition for places is always a good thing. Honestly, if McIlduff hadn’t been released from Celtic, but from Motherwell or Falkirk instead, this wouldn’t even be a story right now. So if the young player stays on at Leeds, it’s great to see him get a chance. If he doesn’t, oh well. Either way, it’s nice to see another young player get a chance to keep playing football for a living.