HOW long, dear reader, before Kyogo Furuhashi is being tipped for a quickfire return to Celtic?
Yes, I realise the question would have been preposterous just over a month ago with the ink on the fans’ favourite’s contract at Rennes still in the process of drying.
Yet again, though, we are reminded four weeks or so can be a lifetime in the beautiful game.
The champions collected £10million for a 30-year-old player and, on the face of it, that looked like sound fiscal business by the Hoops hierarchy.
Would Kyogo have scored a goal or two against Aston Villa in the final Champions League qualifier in the Midlands on January 29 that could have transformed a 4-2 defeat into a win of any kind?
FRENCH LEAVE…former Celtic favourite Kyogo Furuhashi and the Rennes club badge, possibly not a partnership made in heaven.
A victory against a team with a young midfielder, Boubarcar Kamara, filling in at an unaccustomed centre-back position would have saved Celtic the trouble of facing Bayern Munich – and ultimate expulsion – in the first knock-out stage.
With 10 minutes remaining at Villa Park, Brendan Rodgers was forced to throw on debutant Daniel Cummings for Adam Idah, who was out on his feet after scoring two swift goals to bring the scoreline back to 2-2 before the interval.
The Hoops were trailing 3-2 when Cummings made an appearance and I can’t recall the kid even getting a kick of the ball. Would Kyogo have made a difference?
We’ll never know. What I would say, though, is that Celtic would have had a far better chance of taking the match to 3-3 with the tried-and-trusted Japanese in the frontline than a teenager who will probably never feature again and, according to some reports, is already committed to West Ham next season.
Following 85 goals in three and a half years after his £4.6million recruitment from J-League outfit Vissel Kobe in July 2021, Kyogo caught a lot of his supporters on the back foot when he vamoosed off the Glasgow radar to resurface in northwestern France.
We were informed he had been agitating for a move “for months” and was eager to shift to another country in an effort to catch the eye of Japanese head coach Hajime Moriyasu to reignite his international career.
I pointed out that playing in Scotland hadn’t appeared to hinder the progress of Daizen Maeda at this level.
HEAVEN’S ABOVE…Kyogo Furuhashi celebrates one of his 85 Celtic goals.
Even before the deal was signed, sealed and delivered, I said here that a lot of what was being written and said about the switch was utter drivel. The prime motivator was cash for a player looking for one last big payday.
Kyogo signed a deal at Rennes to take him up to the summer of 2027, the same expiry date as the one on his Celtic contract.
You don’t have to be gifted with the sleuthing skills of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional Baker Street-based detective to fathom that his terms in France were better than those in Scotland.
Either that or Kyogo has developed a voracious appetite for l’escargot.
And here we are today, my friend. The one-time Hoops talisman, adored by the club’s followers, is being shunned by new manager Habib Beye who has recently taken over from Jorge Sampaoli, the gaffer who signed the player.
Kyogo didn’t budge from the substitutes’ bench for the second successive game as Rennes overcame struggling Montpellier 4-0 at the weekend, as CQN reported yesterday.
The pacy attack-leader has played a total of 83 minutes since his transfer and it’s highly unlikely he’ll start against Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday.
Could he even be on his way tuit suite?
Under a headline using the word ‘Riddle’, one French media outlet, Jeunesfooteux, looking at the new coach’s immediate impact on a club fighting relegation when the striker was signed, offered this: “What about Kyogo Furuhashi arriving this winter for 12million euros from Celtic Glasgow, the 30-year-old Japanese striker has only played 83 minutes in Ligue 1 so far.
LOST IN FRANCE…Kyogo Furuhashi has played 83 minutes at Rennes.
“Worse, he has been on the bench three times in the last four matches. A casting error? Not a choice by Habib Beye who prefers to rely on Arnaud Kalimuendo at centre-forward, Furuhashi will have to be patient.
“In our opinion, it would not be surprising to see him pack up and leave during the next transfer window. The fact remains that some choices are enough to leave you with regrets.”
Cast your mind back, if you will, just before the January window closed. Celtic were scrambling about looking for someone to keep Idah company for the crucial run-in to the campaign where a world record ninth domestic clean sweep was a distinct possibility.
As Rodgers scoured the market, all sorts of names popped up with thirtysomethings Danny Ings and Jamie Vardy among them. I half expected Uncle Tom Cobley to be thrown into the mix at one stage.
The deadline passed without a successor to Kyogo. The burden of leading the attack had settled on the shoulders of Idah and youngster Johnny Kenny, still looking for his first Hoops goal.
Presuming Celtic win the Premiership title for a fourth successive season, they will face a Champions League qualifier in July. Failure is not part of the equation.
Rodgers will be looking to strengthen the squad, but, in particular, he will realise he needs to beef up the striking options.
I am well aware that Kyogo does not fit the club’s strategy which has been mainly successful in recent times.
PUTTING THE BITE ON THE BADGE…Kyogo Furuhashi after another Celtic strike.
However, would it be worth a risk to bring him back to Parkhead and meet the financial terms he has at a team who have as much chance of winning their national championship as I have of beating any of Usain Bolt’s landspeed records?
The club would be getting a ready-made hitman who knows and understands the landscape and would inevitably contribute to the goals for column.
Would Rennes be prepared to take a massive financial hit on the player and, for instance, take a 50 per cent cut of their original cash outlay?
I don’t think that would present an insurmountable stumbling block. The club are owned by businessman Francois-Henri Pinault and the last time I looked his personal wealth was pegged at 21.7 billion US dollars.
That’s about ten times what Dermot Desmond has stashed away.
I doubt if Msr Pinault lost a wink of sleep when one-time £25million man Filipe Jota, who had been an expensive import from Al-Ittihad in the summer, was sold to Celtic in January for £8.5million.
