Kyogo, icon who made Scotland a better place

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This impact Kyogo made on Celtic is difficult to overestimate.  He cost three times more than any of our other recent players from Japan and established his credentials a week after touching down in Scotland.  In August 2021, Celtic were trophyless and at their lowest point this century.

Kyogo was the spark that ignited the club.  His perpetual motion, enthusiasm, selflessness and his goals, mostly his goals, gave us cause to hope for the future.  He also gave us 8 out of 10 trophies contested during his time in Glasgow.

His first virtuoso performance delivered a hattrick against Dundee.  We thought we were onto something special, but dare not dream of the levels he delivered.  Kyogo enjoys a big game and took special delight in scoring against Newco.  Including an incredible seven goals in 2023.  He terrorised them at Celtic Park, Hampden and Ibrox.

With him on the field, you could be playing badly, but knew something special could happen at any moment.  His hattrick of disallowed goals against Young Boys on Wednesday apparently bookends his time as an active Celtic icon.  His inactive icon status will last decades, though.

Without doubt, he is the best since Henrik Larsson – the only appropriate reference point.  We waited 20 years between the departure of Kenny Dalglish and Larsson’s arrival.  The 17 years between Henrik and Kyogo were filled with some great Celtic strikers, but none possessed the sheer magic of Kyogo.

It wasn’t just his play.  The man picked up litter, comforted injured opponents and wherever he went, made Scotland a better place.  I cannot see someone throw litter away without contrasting them to our hero.  He was an example of how to work hard and live your life.  And there was that smile.

I have been preaching Asset Management here for decades.  ‘Manage your assets or fail to manage your assets’.  Fans like you and I have sporting heroes, but Michael Nicholson’s job (as well as being a fan) is to manage our assets.  A reported fee of £10m for a player who turned 30 this month and had a significantly less effective 2024 than 2023 is Tier One asset management.

I only hope we do not backfill with one of Brendan’s agent pals’ players, or someone he watched a while back but is now out of favour in the English Championship.

Best of luck to Kyogo in France.  Despite his horrendous performance last night Jack Butland will be a happy man today.

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629 Comments

  1. GARYGILLESPIESHAMSTRING on 25TH JANUARY 2025 2:43 PM

     

    Is it within the gift of the club to unilaterally take a decision to postpone a match in those circumstances or does it require the involvement of the SPFL or the local authority to say the ground is unsafe before a match csn be cancelled?

     

     

     

    I agree that the game should have been postponed last night, but am unsure I who takes the decision.

     

    —————-/

     

     

    Clubs can’t arbitrarily call off matches. The system would be open to abuse if they could.

     

     

    Celtic needed an independent professional opinion, which would only have been available this morning when it was light, to advise on the damage.

     

     

    That opinion would have been relayed to the SPFL, who in turn would give permission for the game to be postponed.

     

     

    For clarity Celtic could not have called off the match last night as the extent of the damage would not have been fully known – so no ‘feet-dragging’ by the club. HH

  2. CLUNKS/BOGNORBHOY/GENE

     

    Just to clarify – they’re not IN the stove, but enjoying (I hope) its warmth. But you knew that and good replies.

     

    Down to 5% now. Glad I dug out the old transistor radio!

  3. Darwin,

     

     

    Sorry I have to disagree.

     

     

    The game should have been called off last night.

     

     

    A Rope Access team or teams would need to be put on standby and they would nor be allowed on the ropes until satisfactory daylight was available.

     

    Even an inspectuon would take hours

     

    Repairs will potentially go on all weekend.

     

     

    This game was never goung to happen after a red warning storm which is danger to life.

     

    Who would give the all clear without a huge inspection process.?

     

     

    I believe Celtic and our neighbours across the river have teams carrying out repairs.

     

     

    A big shout out to all our emergency Services and workers who work in adverse conditions.

     

    Cant fix these problems working from home

     

     

     

    Cheers and HH.

  4. lets all do the huddle on

    This game was never goung to happen after a red warning storm which is danger to life.

     

     

     

    the red warning is a red herring in this discussion!

     

     

    virtually all other games have went ahead and those areas all had the same warning.

     

     

    and the warning was due to end at 5pm yesterday anyway.

     

     

    whats more relevant is that once they knew there was damage there was virtually no way they could even assess it until daylight this morning which would almost certainly be too late to do anything about it, so asking for the game to be postponed last night seemed like the sensible thing to do.

  5. GREENPINATA on 25TH JANUARY 2025 3:59 PM

     

    The game should have been called off last night.

     

    ————/

     

    Who would/should have called it off without knowing the extent of the damage?

     

     

    There are games going ahead in the red zone today -,at Hearts. Ayr(right in the teeth of it), Airdrie, Livingstone and at Hampden. Celtic knew of some damage last night and so would the SPFL – but the extent could not have been ascertained fully till this morning.HH

  6. LADTH,

     

     

    A very rare red weather warning should automatically cancel major gatherings until such a time that inspections deem the venues safe..

     

     

    Is that not common sense ?

     

     

    HH.

  7. celtic plc as the insured entity can postpone the event for public safety reason and corporate liabilities.

     

     

    it really is as simple as that.

     

     

    hello spl, we cant host tmorrows match, because part of the roofs have blown off.#

     

     

    cheers.

  8. lets all do the huddle on

    A very rare red weather warning should automatically cancel major gatherings until such a time that inspections deem the venues safe..

     

     

    Is that not common sense ?

     

     

     

    absolutely valid argument, but that means all of todays games would need to have been postponed yesterday until a safety inspection could have been carried out at all of them in daylight this morning.

     

     

    or just say yesterday that no games will be played today.

     

     

    i dont have much of an issue with that.

  9. “AIPPLE on 25TH JANUARY 2025 5:45 PM

     

    Jota at Celtic Park they say.”

     

     

    Who are `they` ?

  10. Burnley78

     

    Lead Aŕticle

     

    “I only hope we do not backfill with one of Brendan’s agent pals’ players, or someone he watched a while back but is now out of favour in the English Championsh”

     

     

     

    Burnley78 on 24th January 2025 12:46 pm

     

    Great article Paul67. Spot on in every aspect.

     

     

    B78

     

    -Do You think P67 is ‘spot on’ re Brendans agent pals

     

    -‘Spot on re ‘someone now out of favour in English championship.

     

     

    If you can explain that comment b78?

     

    From a corporate point of view do you have any comment on the “backfill/projects/utter dross as outlined in spidey101s post and Chairbhoy posts of family choice using OUR money,

     

     

    Imo Paul67 can not drop a snider which you think is spot on without accounting for OUR money lost in recent years to the likes of Shved who the manager never knew was coming.

     

     

    HH

  11. BRRB The last time that I was in Heraghty’s was the night of 25th May, 1967, and there were no seats then either!

     

    StandupfortheBhoys CSC

  12. “BIGRAILROADBLUES on 25TH JANUARY 2025 5:56 PM

     

    Hot Smoked

     

    He told me earlier in Sharkeys.”

     

     

    I thought he was a Sarry Heid man.

  13. “BIGRAILROADBLUES on 25TH JANUARY 2025 6:18 PM

     

    Aipple

     

    You are buying the bevvy. 😉”

     

     

    I bet you say that to all the Bhoys :-)

  14. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    Don’t know Paul. Never met him.

     

     

    Don’t know Brendan. Never met him.

     

     

    Don’t know Peter L. Never met him.

     

     

    Maybe I should get out more.

     

     

    From his posts and positioning, I reckon Paul is a data driven guy.

     

     

    I assume he deploys a data driven approach to his own business successfully … and believes it is more reliable than a manager’s gut.

     

     

    I assume Peter L is a numbers guy who has been sold on the data driven approach.

     

     

    I assume Brendan, like many manager’s, is a gut guy to some degree, who (like all managers) thinks he has a nose for a player.

     

     

    I also assume he is a smart man who, across a long career, has learned to use and trust data more and more.

     

     

    I suspect his preferred model is data with a chunk of room for experience and instinct.

     

     

    Which once in a while will result in us buying a guy like Adam even if (guessing here) the data doesn’t quite support the purchase AND the fee is bigger than we were originally hoping to pay.

  15. I doubt Celtic could do much about today’s match being cancelled. It’s just one of those things.

     

     

    Spare a thought for my ex-colleague, Sophia, who undertook her first Celtic Tour this weekend. Months of preparation, 3am start, arriving at Glasgow airport at 7.15am and finding out at 10am there is no match to attend. For most of the students it will probably be their one and only chance to see Celtic in Paradise. They’ll go up to Celtic Park tomorrow and at least see the stadium and its environs but that is no substitute for experiencing a match.

     

     

    Luckily for me, I have no responsibility on the tour now so I had the pleasure of BRRB’s company and made my debut in the Shipbank.

     

     

    Next visit from me will be the huns game on March 16th.

     

     

    Many others will have come from far and wide only to have their plans obliterated.

     

     

    It is what it is CSC🍀🍀

  16. bigrailroadblues on

    Hot Smoked

     

    Brazen Head.

     

    Only the bhoys who help out an impoverished pensioner. 😉

  17. bigrailroadblues on

    If the hun game is cancelled tomorrow they’ll probably send troops to the Dundee border.