AIDEN and the magic feet.

It is a fairytale which has become essential reading for every child in Celtic's junior academy. McGeady is the modern-day skills disciple who is inspiring an army of ardent followers.

The 21-year-old has shaped the philosophy of the club's youth structure and every one of his twists and flicks are now replicated at under-age levels by dextrous youngsters eager to emulate their hero.

It is not only Gordon Strachan who will pick over the bones of Celtic's demolition of Aberdeen at the weekend. The Celtic youth coaches will sit down this week and pick out the moments of exquisite skill which marked one of the most thrilling individual performances of recent seasons.

They are already familiar with the mesmerising Zidane' turn, which bamboozled two Aberdeen defenders and led to the creation of Celtic's fourth goal, scored by Scott McDonald. One youth coach estimates that he sees the same turn at least three or four times in every training session. Such has been McGeady's impact.

Another of his tricks - executed on the touchline later in the game - in which he stopped the ball with one foot and stabbed it forward with the other, is a new one which the coaches will use the pause button to analyse and then eagerly pass on their findings to their young charges.

At 21, McGeady remains an innovator. One of his former youth coaches bristled at The Herald's suggestion that he had had a significant role to play in McGeady's development. "The only one who coached Aiden McGeady was God," he smiled.

As a teenager, McGeady used to coach the coaches, showing them the latest tricks he had added to his repertoire every week. Now, those same coaches are seeking to pass on the same skills to the next generation.

Every month, they run a Sunday Skills School, where the young players are further encouraged to express themselves. The monthly newsletter has a keepy-up league table, with the leading under-12 player holding the record at 1098.

Youngsters in the junior academy (under-12 downwards) now run through 23 different skills practices at every training session and there are five variations on the McGeady turn.

His most identifiable version is a variation on the Cruyff turn, as seen on the left touchline against Rangers last season. Another is when he touches the ball repeatedly with the laces before flipping it with the outside and then inside of the boot in one fluid motion. Celtic's youth coaches also encourage their players to execute them in the same areas as McGeady, most notably the inside-left channel.

"There will always be an emphasis on skills at Celtic," insisted Tommy Burns, who combines his job as first team coach with head of youth development. "The philosophy of the club is based on technique. That is combined with the physical side of the game which has been taken on greatly by Gregory Dupont, the club's head of sports science, who works with the club's youngsters too. McGeady has taken both aspects on and is the perfect example for every youth player at the club who is striving to reach the first team."

But it is not only McGeady's skills which are replicated and passed on. There are also manoeuvres perfected by former players such as Jimmy Johnstone, Shaun Maloney, Stilian Petrov, and Mark Fotheringham.

The latter was an audacious piece of skill executed by the ex-Celtic youngster in a reserve match, when he famously flicked the ball over his own and an opponent's head before catching it on the other side. The club now have 11-year-olds who can execute it better than Fotheringham.

Other less elaborate tricks have been inspired by players such as Neil Lennon and Paul Lambert who, although not lavishly-skilled, were experts at creating a yard for themselves in a congested midfield. When a youngster excels at any of the aforementioned techniques, they receive the accolade of the skill then being named after them.

The club's approach is part of a growing acknowledgement that skills-based coaching has more to offer than mere entertainment value. Modern football has moved beyond the era of the athlete. Players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Ronaldinho are proof that an emphasis on skills need not come at the expense of an end-product. Indeed, Celtic's youth coaches will emphasise that McGeady's moment of magic was followed by a pin-point cross which led to a goal.

Significantly Manchester United recently employed a skills development coach, Dutchman Rene Meulensteen, to foster a more individualistic approach.

The global success of the chain of Brazilian Soccer Schools founded by Simon Clifford, which produced the England defender Micah Richards, is another reflection of the trend.

Meanwhile, Parkhead's Pied Piper has an army of mini-mes trailing in his wake.