CELTIC was a club founded with charity in mind and it is others who are currently reaping the benefits of that ongoing benevolence. Those lamenting the lack of youth prospects coming through the ranks at Lennoxtown – manager Brendan Rodgers didn’t or couldn’t name an orthodox centre forward in his 18-man squad that faced Rosenborg on Wednesday night – need only take a look at some of the names populating team sheets at clubs up and down the land to appreciate there is a difference between not producing any academy graduates, and not producing academy graduates deemed worthy of the Celtic first team.

Some, of course, have made it through and stayed there, most notably of late Kieran Tierney, Callum McGregor and James Forrest. There are high hopes also for Anthony Ralston, Calvin Miller, Jack Aitchison and Karamoko Dembele, but the feeling lingers that more should be knocking on the door.

In an ideal world every Scottish team would be populating their first-team squads predominantly with homegrown talent but Celtic have the luxury of aspiring to higher standards. While most other clubs are pushed into relying on youth graduates out of financial necessity, the Parkhead club can afford to be more selective.

They are also bound by a far higher level of expectation. Making the Champions League group stage and winning trophies is now anticipated rather than simply wished for each season. Rodgers would surely have loved to have turned to his Development Squad ahead of last week’s European tie and pitched in a modern-day Charlie Nicholas or Mark Burchill to augment his striking options. But he can’t do so simply to appease supporters or to make up numbers.

These qualifying rounds are already a precarious tightrope walk without taking further risks. Rodgers must have assessed the club’s youth talent at his disposal and felt none was capable of making a difference at this level. The sight of the lesser-spotted Nadir Ciftci charging around in a five-a-side game on the Parkhead pitch in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday’s tie – having not come close to making the matchday squad – told a similar story about the Turk’s long-term prospects.

Twenty-four hours after the Rosenborg game, two familiar faces were starring in Aberdeen’s Europa League win over Apollon Limassol.

Neither Ryan Christie nor Gary Mackay-Steven were Celtic youth graduates but their failure to establish themselves in the first team stems from a similar scenario; not good enough for the best side in the country, probably too good for the second-best one.

Celtic’s youth academy coaches, then, must continue to plough on diligently, knowing that the chances of a player progressing all their way through the system into the first-team are about as slim as Peter Lawwell getting a Christmas card from the Green Brigade.

Instead, it is other clubs who continue to benefit from that solid grounding in Celtic’s state-of-the art training facility, latching on to those let go each year. Some slip through the net – Andy Robertson being the most obvious example – but few are the stories of Celtic regret after blocking off a youth player’s route to the first team and watching him turn into a superstar elsewhere.

Whether Celtic should have more centre forwards in their squad is another argument. Leigh Griffiths’ suspension and the injury to Moussa Dembele saw Rodgers ask Tom Rogic to lead the line against Rosenborg.

Two elite strikers for a system that requires only one of them to play at a time ought to be enough, but for one of the biggest games of their season, Celtic were undoubtedly caught short.

Rodgers may need to go back into the transfer market to source a replacement for the stricken Dembele. That he cannot call upon a centre forward from the academy should come as no surprise as it has now been a decade since a Scottish striker forced his way through the ranks and into the first team. Even then Craig Beattie – ironically picked up after being discarded early on by Rangers – did not properly establish himself due to injury and other factors but, since his departure in 2007, no centre forward has come close to following in his path.

It is further evidence that at Celtic there is a seismic difference between being good and being good enough.