OCCUPANTS of Row E are in more danger of being decapitated and corner flags demolished than opponents’ nets bulging when Daizen Maeda has let loose this season.
Celtic’s Japanese speedster has hurtled from awesome to awful in the space of a year.
His fall from grace can only be likened to a plunging meteorite thundering its way to a final resting place. At this rate, Maeda will find his level somewhere near the earth’s core.
Last season, he rattled in 33 goals as he stormed his way to multiple Player of the Year awards. This term, eight strikes with nine games to play in the Premiership and, hopefully, three in the Scottish Cup.
His last goal was scored in the 4-0 win over Dundee United on January 10 at Parkhead, FOURTEEN games ago. Astoundingly, that remains Maeda’s only goal in 2026.
Praised one year, pilloried the next. Such is the life of a footballer.
OH NO…Daizen Maeda rues another miss during a gruelling campaign.
You have to wonder if the player is more than a tad miffed a £14million move to Wolfsburg fell through in the summer. It most certainly would have been a life-transforming deal for the 28-year-old forward with a young family.
As well as a great piece of business for the club, Maeda would almost certainly have trebled his wages at the Bundesliga outfit.
Forget tales that he had already cleared out his locker at Lennoxtown and the deal was just about done and dusted before Celtic reluctantly pulled the plug. That’s just bunkum conjured up by fertile imaginations.
Had Maeda been whisked away in early August, the champions would have been left with Adam Idah, Johnny Kenny and Shin Yamada as the main frontmen with the responsibility of scoring goals.
Doesn’t bear thinking about, does it?
All three are currently employed elsewhere, Idah at Swansea following a permanent switch and Kenny and Yamada on loan.
We don’t need reminding that Celtic’s last two transfer windows have been disastrous, bordering on cataclysmic.
Tell us something we don’t know.
MAKING A POINT…Martin O’Neill yells instructions to his Celtic players.
And please don’t go on about the team’s high-wire balancing act every match day taking its toll on 74-year-old Martin O’Neill.
It’s not just the Irishman who is gaining wrinkles at a feverish rate this season; just look around you. All of a Celtic persuasion appear to have accelerated the ageing process.
My cat doesn’t even recognise me these days.
But the club can somehow pick their way through the rubble of a demanding crusade to get within touching distance of a podium where the silverware awaits.
The squad O’Neill has at his disposal is as good as it is going to get between now and the final whistle on a gruelling campaign.
There is absolutely no point in wailing on about ‘if only we had bought’ or ‘if only we had kept’ hypothetical claptrap. It’s far removed from ideal, we are all aware of that, but there are no alternatives, so the guys in green and white jerseys urgently require all the support and backing they can get.
Julian Araujo, Marcelo Saracchi. Tomas Cvancara, Junior Adamu, Joel Mvuka, Kelechi Iheanacho and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain may not be around the place in three months’ time.
Likewise a few others. But, for the time being, anyway, they are Celtic players and it cannot be left to O’Neill, Shaun Maloney and the rest of the backroom staff to cajole and coax the best of these guys.
The fans have a crucial part to play. And that takes us back to Daizen Maeda. Every player needs the essential commodity of confidence; a striker probably more than any other.
Just look back to Pittodrie in midweek. Last season’s bountiful hitman was presented with a wonderful opportunity to claim a third goal and ease the anxiety in the north east.
As Maeda raced in on the unprotected Dmitar Mitov it looked like a shoo-in for the Hoops attacker. Instead, Maeda sclaffed the ball yards off target and the endurance test continued all the way to the last shrill of the referee’s whistle.
TOO LATE…Daizen Maeda is thwarted by Aberdeen keeper Dimitar Mitov during Celtic’s 2-1 win at Pittodrie in midweek.
This afternoon, Maeda is likely to play at Ibrox in an intriguing Scottish Cup quarter-final.
O’Neill warned us all not to expect a goal avalanche from Cvancara when he arrived on his temporary transfer from Borussia Monchengladbach. Our interim manager is nothing if not honest, as one goal in nine games from the towering attack-leader emphasises.
With a perplexing season now heading for the finishing line, every Celt has his duty to stand up and be counted.
Celtic have been a rudderless ship for a chunk of this campaign. Martin O’Neill is doing his utmost to steer the team through choppy, turbulent waters.
It would be excellent timing if Daizen Maeda answered a Mayday call from the captain.
Today at Ibrox would be an ideal day and venue to start.
ALEX GORDON
*DON’T miss the unbeatable match report and best action images from Rangers v Celtic this afternoon – only in your champion CQN.
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