Kyogo shaped hole in the squad

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The script was written for Jota to come off the bench on his return after 18 months and score in a Celtic win.  His last kick of the ball for Celtic before departing was to put us 3-1 ahead of Inverness Caley Thistle in the Scottish Cup Final.

Adam Idah seems to have flicked a switch, returning to form from last term, while Daizen Maeda sparkled throughout, including when he played through the middle.

None of that moves the dial, however. If Celtic do not sign a striker today they are undeniably taking a risk with the second half of the season. There remains a Kyogo shaped hole in the squad. Over to you, Brendan, Michael.

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340 Comments

  1. STEBHOY

     

    You have all the financial intelligence of der hun.

     

    100M is nothing in the top elite.

     

    A fool and money are easily parted, as I’m sure you can testify.

     

    Ave Ave

  2. Great window.Groundwork laid for the CL qualifier,with KT,Jota brought in.Idah getting his chance to shine,and Maeda,who will get games as a striker.Very good utility player brought in,who,if he is a success,is free in the summer.

     

     

    Stebhoy,

     

    If this team cant beat Bayern,then no £14 million kid is going to change that.Is it really that difficult to give the players we have a crack at it.See how the rest of the season goes.The striker you were hoping for,better than Idah ?.

  3. Gene

     

     

    Back then we had an Australian manager just in the door so maybe he did ? He didn’t get them all right but got enough right for me.

     

     

    You know the rules though. Some sad folk operate to. If it’s wrong or not good blame a Lawwell or the board. If it’s right then don’t give them credit.

  4. Turkeybhoy 11:15.

     

    That’s not the point. We were told we would have a stronger squad when the window shut.

     

    We don’t.

  5. Tictastic

     

    The reason you don’t understand the complexities involved in the running of a successful football club are lost to none.

     

    Go to bed, get up early tomorrow morning and get on with the job you can do well within your limits.

     

    Dont forget to say your prayers.

     

    Ave Ave

  6. Did any of you listen to Rodgers interview yesterday? This is not my ask or my opinion. It’s the fkn managers big ask. “I want to improve, we know where to improve and I don’t want to fall out with myself again like last time”. My point is simple – he asked and didn’t get ! For that , I’m disappointed.

     

     

    Fk all to do with financial intelligence

  7. Paul on twitter makes a great point.

     

     

    5 or more top notch and innovative pre planned signings in the January windows in 22 23 and 24. All spending decent money on significant assets.

     

     

    Johnston Maeda O Riley Kuhn Hatate all bought in Jan.

     

     

    Then this slightly less inspiring for the medium term in my view.

     

     

    Structured approach vs ‘on the hoof’ once saw him play for a team I know. He will fill a hole short term.

  8. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    Transfer window closed at 11pm.

     

     

    At precisely the same time Pandora’s box opened in Celtic cyberspace …

     

     

    … and all possible evils spilled out.

     

     

    Board

     

    Lawwell

     

    Penny pinching

     

    Amateurish

     

    Shambolic

     

    Rodgers

     

    Slapdash

     

    Last minute

     

    Scrambling

     

    Embarrassing

     

    Another Lawwell

     

    CEO

     

    You know who sign “starlet” called Greg Docherty … er … I mean Jake Hastie … er … I mean Connor Barron … er … I mean Lameron Kyle.

     

     

    Yawn.

     

     

    Goodnight CQN.

  9. Turkeybhoy

     

     

    I really love your positive attitude.

     

     

    I honestly really hope you are correct.

     

     

    I also hope to be celebrating in Munich in 15 days time.

  10. The Japanese players were known to ange who saw them play, we all saw Johnson in the world Cup prior to signing kuhn was BR and o Riley signed by ange funny how there are no duds on your list?

  11. Dessybhoy

     

     

    I was responding to someone who said there was no good signings to be made in January. That we had no history of it.

  12. Stebhoy

     

     

    Brendan Rodgers won’t be at Celtic next season. That was his message.

     

    Good luck to him on his next venture into The Land of Glory. He has served us well, as we have served him.

     

    Never mind financial intelligence, lets talk common sense.

     

    If we spend money willy nilly, we’ll have none left soon enough.

     

    The signing/selling policy has served us well. We’re in a commanding position to grow steadily.

     

    Why give all that up?

     

    We have our boot on der Huns squealing throat. Let’s keep it there, ad infinitum.

     

    Celtic ain’t just for Christmas time transfer windows. You don’t get to exchange petty players like presents.

     

    Ave Ave

  13. Dessybhoy

     

     

    Clearly all of these were known to someone but did you know Johnston before the World Cup or Kuhn. Likewise who knew O Riley ? Who was responsible for Ange coming ? If you give him credit re the Japanese ?

     

     

    Of course there are failures but our trading profit and trophy haul points to stunning net success this past 5 years. It also points to failing to get to last 16 in Europe which is less good. And looks like continuing to be less good unless we really step up next week and the following. So I do accept it has been far from perfect.

  14. It is what it is , I hope the guy we did bring in can play midfield or centre half he sure has the build for it .

  15. This site is ruined by ads. I’d.rather pay a subscription than having to constantly shut down the.multitude of ads.

  16. Prestonpans bhoys on

    Tyrone Tim on 3rd February 2025 11:51 pm

     

    This site is ruined by ads

     

     

    Download brave.com and use it for this site 👍

  17. If the huns had brought back their prodigal son in this window, plus an EPL experienced versatility player, plus another prodigal son returning in summer, can we imagine the fawning hun media?

     

    Best they do is another project in six months.

     

    I despise our media, whether its Shortbread, Clyde or the Daily Crap, so will they either admit that Celtic live on another planet now, or have a half cowardly attempt to ask questions about Sevco financials, as they did with our “biscuit tin’?

     

    As much as i hate them, the Smsm are a gift.

     

    They will continue to keep the huns doing the ostrich, and long may it last.

  18. glendalystonsils on

    Santa didn’t bring us a shiny new bike , but the old one still goes ,so let’s keep pedalling . You never know , it might get us there until next Santa window .

  19. We got Jota, a loan lb from Palace & no Kyogo hole plugged…I hope Brendan isn’t reconsidering his decision again

  20. glendalystonsils on

    I do hope the club does an evaluation on the window and learns from it. So much is out of our hands of course but we need to look at every possible part of the recruitment process to see if there’s anything we could do better to bring in the players we need . I don’t think we are at the moment .

  21. SIONNAIGH re: Mad Yanks

     

     

    I live in a wee buffer zone and company. I am blessed. The rest of the place is fecked.

  22. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

     

    Ecclesiastes 3, 1-8

  23. The returnof weeron on

    Turkeybhoy on 3rd February 2025 11:15 pm

     

    Spot on.

     

     

    People are moaning about Shlupp as well. He’s there because Valle left. That was Barca’s decision. So we got the cover that we needed. Not a Recruitment failure in itself.

     

     

    Striker….

     

     

    We failed to sign one.

     

     

    Brendan wanted one. WE wanted one. Why did we not get one? People on here will blame the Board. Paul will blame Brendan.

     

     

    But we don’t know why no-one was signed. Maybe they wanted crazy money. Maybe clubs didn’t want to sell. We don’t know. Folk will be in a strop about this. They’ll pick who they hate the most (the Board or Brendan) – and hate them more

     

     

    Is it the end of the world? No.

     

     

    Does it destroy our season? No.

     

     

    Idah will continue to find his way as our ‘Main’ striker. He’ll be better for it. Or he won’t shine in that role, and we’ll be better off knowing that.

     

     

    But, at the end of the day, the window has slammed shut. We have the squad that we have, until the next window. Then we go again.

     

     

    Our choice now is simple:

     

     

    We support the team.

     

     

    Or we don’t.

     

     

     

    Cheers,

     

    Weeron

  24. The returnof weeron on

    glendalystonsils on 4th February 2025 12:16 am

     

    I do hope the club does an evaluation on the window and learns from it. So much is out of our hands of course but we need to look at every possible part of the recruitment process to see if there’s anything we could do better to bring in the players we need . I don’t think we are at the moment .

     

     

    Indeed. We should have a review done after every window. Good or bad, there will be things to learn.

     

    Weeron

  25. Dexter P. Bampot on

    I’m pretty relaxed about the squad

     

     

    Love Kyogo but has to be said goal return wasn’t great this year. Minutes per game and Idah has better rate

     

     

    Jota is one of Celtics top scorers over past few seasons

     

     

    Hopefully Kenny gets his chance too

     

     

    Schlupp certainly was an excellent player. I thought he was top drawer few years back

     

     

    No point in bringing in just any striker even on loan

     

     

    Don’t get me when wrong- I think the board have fecked up a bit by not getting replacement (or perhaps was deliberate failure, who knows?)

     

     

    Still more than enough for a domestic treble

     

     

    I can’t think of an available, achievable player who would, several months out, guarantee CL qualification for next season.

     

     

    We have, up top-

     

     

    Idah

     

    Kuhn

     

    Maeda

     

    Jota

     

    Kenny

     

    Cummings

     

     

    Still plenty of nice football to play before end of season.

     

     

    Are any of our domestic rivals any stronger??

     

     

    ☘️🍀🇮🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏆🏆🏆

  26. Goid Morning Celts – Grand Day To Be A Tim…

     

     

    BURNLEY78 @ 11:39 PM,

     

     

    DESSYBHOY makes a good point, if we look at the January window over the last five years…

     

     

    January 2021

     

     

    DF Jonjoe Kenny – Loan

     

     

    January 2022

     

     

    MF Reo Hatate

     

     

    MF Yosuke Ideguchi

     

     

    FW Daizen Maeda – Loan

     

     

    FW Johnny Kenny

     

     

    MF Matt O’Riley

     

     

    January 2023

     

     

    DF Yuki Kobayashi

     

     

    DF Alistair Johnston

     

     

    MF Tomoki Iwata – Loan

     

     

    FW Oh Hyeon-gyu

     

     

    January 2024

     

     

    FW Nic Kuhn

     

     

    FW Adam Idah

     

     

    January 2025

     

     

    FW Jota

     

     

    MF Jeffrey Schlupp – Loan

     

     

    DF Keiran Tierney- Pre-contract

     

     

    Ange did have a couple of exceptional windows, but that’s exactly what they were, the exception to the norm.

     

     

    Before this window closed, there was an expectation that we would sign a couple high value players.

     

     

    You were complaining that Celtic had abandoned a winning strategy and we needed to make a profit from player sales*.

     

     

    For whatever reason, the Celtic Executive did not see value in concluding these deals in this window** and took their normal prudent approach.

     

     

    It means we bought 9 mn worth of players and sold 14 mn worth of players.

     

     

    So Celtic PLC was net + 5 mn, the approach and strategy you say you wanted – so now you moan that Micheal Nicholson and Brendan Rodgers can’t land their targets.

     

     

    You erroneously suggest, that getting to the UCL knock out round play-offs is no big deal, and unless we knock out Bayern Munich our Euro campaign is a failure.

     

     

    Yet you wax lyrical about the Peter Lawwell era, an era of poor recruitment, especially in the January window.

     

     

    An era where we got to the knock out rounds only three times from seventeen, and failed to get to the UCL group stage nine times.

     

     

    You simply twist and turn in the wind to create a fictional narrative of the Lawwell’s are always good, Brendan Rodgers always bad.

     

     

    It is clear that your “perception” bubble has been burst and the good fholk of CQN see right through you and the other old Board’s like minded coterie.

     

     

    The fact remains that the last 25 years have been exceptional for Celtic football club, predicacated on what many Celtic minded folk created in the ninties – that’s over thirty years for the club to reach where it is today***

     

     

    The idea that the modern Celtic football club has excelled due to one executive, who was hired as a retrenchment specialist in the middle of this, is a nonsense, a complete joke.

     

     

    *That is something I do not agree with, player recruitment is a cost to a football club, if some smart player trading/ “asset management” can mitigate those costs, fair enough, yet first and foremost, we need a squad fit for purpose.

     

     

    **This transfer window was very much defined by the UCL games in the latter part of January – Kyogo going when we had qualified, then the investment needed to give us a push over the knock out stages – we are very much the underdogs against Bayern Munich and any player recruitment needed to bare that in mind and give us real value, as Jota, Jeffrey Schlupp and KT have…

     

     

    ***This season sees a high watermark for Celtic, prestigious knock out tie in the UCL after qualifying from the new league format, domestic treble on, record revenues, record funds in the bank and a high value, very well managed squad, that will givecusxevery chance of qualifying for the UCL League stage next season.

     

     

    WhatsNotToLikeCSC

     

     

    Hail Hail

  27. Good morning all from a Wet Wet Wet Garngad.

     

     

    SHAMBLES and idiotic not backing the manager with a striker.

     

     

    Our Board are still not supporting our manager in his hour of need.

     

     

    Sack the board and Celtic can move to a new level.

     

     

    Ah well it was nice having Brendan for a while.

     

     

    D. :)

  28. I have yet to read anything official re KT. I hope we haven’t jumped the gun here and went public on an Eddie Howe type handshake…

     

     

    But yes, KT and Jota will undoubtedly strengthen us for next season, Jota will play his role this season as well.

     

     

    It can’t or shouldn’t be overlooked though that we knew Kyogo wanted away and we knew the manager wanted a replacement – this window. That hasn’t happened and represents a failure.

     

     

    Reports of talks only opening with Brondby in the last days of the window was a head scratcher. There was absolutely nothing preventing us from opening talks with them on the 1st January. Infact, there was nothing to stop us opening talks with them in December or November or October of last year…

  29. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    Good morning CQN

     

     

    ——-

     

    Blakey on 4th February 2025 12:02 am

     

     

    As much as i hate them, the Smsm are a gift.

     

    ——-

     

     

    What he said.

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