IF THERE is any truth in reports emanating from Denmark that Celtic are about to rekindle interest in Kasper Dolberg, I think we can all accept the game’s a bogey.
This is the player linked with the Hoops in last summer’s transfer window when it became clear he would be leaving Anderlecht.
Thank goodness Ajax were willing to shell out something in the region of £8million to land the Danish international striker for a second spell at the Amsterdam club.
Celtic, as you will undoubtedly remember, were scrambling around looking for a goalscorer after selling the prolific Kyogo Furuhashi to French club Rennes for £10million seven months earlier.
Brendan Rodgers, who okayed the move for the Japanese international, must have been convinced the team had enough firepower in Adam Idah, who had signed a permanent £9.5million deal from Norwich City the previous summer following his initial impressive short-term switch.
DOLBERG IN THE DOLDRUMS…Danish striker Kasper Dolberg claimed only three goals for Ajax after last summer’s £8million move.
Alas, the burden proved too heavy for the Irishman who would be on his way to second-tier Swansea City in a £6.5million move just under a year ago.
Following Kyogo’s farewell, it was left to his compatriot Daizen Maeda to stand up to the plate. He accepted the responsibility of being the club’s main source of goals and collected 33 strikes on his way to well-deserved multiple Player of the Year awards as well as enjoying his fourth successive title triumph at the Hoops.
Celtic, though, realised they urgently required reinforcements in the frontline and they couldn’t continue to depend entirely on the jet-paced Japanese frontman to consistently haul them out of the mire.
Sure enough, inexplicably and unexpectedly, the torrent transformed to a trickle and Maeda produced a mere seven goals by the turn of the year in the new campaign.
Somehow over the intervening summer months, the tiger had lost his snarl.
Johnny Kenny, who would complete the season on loan at Bolton Wanderers, was chosen on several occasions to lead the line while Shin Yamada, a £1million purchase from Kawasaki Frontale in July, and Fulham prospect Callum Osmand, snapped up for free, were the only other strikers brought in during yet another underwhelming transfer window.
The Japanese frontman, who signed a four-year contract, failed to register a solitary strike and was packed off to Bundesliga 2 side Pruben Munster where his three goals in 10 outings failed to prevent the team from dropping into the German third tier.
Unsurprisingly, Yamada was returned to Parkhead with no business being completed.
NICE AND KNEESY DOES IT…Daizen Maeda celebrates the opening goal in Celtic’s 6-2 Scottish Cup semi-final extra-time triumph over St Mirren at Hampden.
The lack of a goal threat sparked some feverish activity in January, but once the deadline had come and gone, only Tomas Cvancara, from Borussia Monchengladbach, and Junior Adamu, from Freiburg, had arrived in loan deals until the end of the season.
Three goals between them – two for Cvancara and one from Adamu – didn’t entice anyone among the Parkhead powerbrokers into extending their stays.
Kelechi Iheanacho, who had arrived as a free agent after his release from Sevilla in September, had contributed two league goals by that stage, one a stoppage-time penalty-kick winner against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park a few days after his arrival.
And that takes us to today when sometimes I wonder if I am operating in a loop.
Dolberg is back on the radar with a report insisting the Hoops “remain interested” in the lumbering forward whose love affair for all things Ajax has hit a brickwall.
Three strikes in 24 appearances was not the anticipated return for the Dutch side’s financial outlay.
The Amsterdam giants finished fifth in the Eredivisie, a mountain of TWENTY-EIGHT points behind PSV.
Feyenoord, NEC and Twente could also look down on the once-mighty European masters who will hope to be involved in the UEFA Conference League next term if they manage to get through the qualifying stages.
PARADISE…Kelechi Iheanacho looks to the heavens after another vital Celtic strike.
It’s not exactly a headscratcher to fathom why Ajax are so willing to sell Dolberg who is under contract until July 2029.
Clearly, they would like to recoup some of their £8million, but they will be lucky to get half that fee based on the Dane’s displays in a season to forget for everyone connected with the club.
If there is anyone at Celtic seriously considering a move for Dolberg, I would respectfully suggest they should quit football forever and concentrate on tiddlywinks.
The forward is 29 on October 6 and, rather obviously, there is no sell-on viability for a player who would be looking for a well-paid four-year contract.
Coincidentally, Iheanacho, scorer of crucial goals in the champions’ successful run-in to the double, also celebrates his birthday in October – his 30th on the third – and we are still awaiting his next move.
Who would you, dear reader, prefer to sign for Celtic before the window closes on September 3?
As they say in football, it’s a no-brainer, isn’t it?
ALEX GORDON
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