TROUBLE AHEAD FOR KYOGO, GOOD NEWS FOR EX-CELT

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KYOGO FURUHASHI is about to seal his three-and-a-half year switch to Rennes just 24 hours after the team slumped into the drop zone of the French top flight.

The Japanese striker’s new club crashed into the bottom three of the 18-team league after Nantes drew 1-1 with Lyon to edge above them at the tailend of Ligue 1.

However, there was good news for former Hoops central defender Christopher Jullien whose Montpellier team climbed off the foot of the table with a 2-1 victory at Toulouse, their first success on the road in 11 games stretching over nine months.

LAST HURRAH AT HAMPDEN…Kyogo Furuhashi celebrates the Premier Sports League Cup triumph over Rangers at the national stadium last month.

Filipe Jota has just quit the French strugglers to return to Parkhead after an absence of 18 months and while the Portuguese winger can look forward to action in the Champions League, his one-time team-mate will be pitched into the dogfight for survival at Rennes, as CQN forecast yesterday.

Kyogo’s new club lost 3-2 in Monaco on Saturday to suffer their twelfth defeat in 19 league games and only goal difference separated them from Nantes with both clubs on 17 points.

However, with the stalemate at home with Lyon yesterday, their rivals are now a crucial point clear.

Jullien’s Montpellier are now on 15 points, just two behind Rennes who are due to visit them on Sunday March 2.

Le Harve lost 1-0 to Brest at home to remain anchored at the bottom on 12 points.

Jullien, who became the most expensive defender in Hoops history when Neil Lennon paid £7million to lure him from Toulouse in June 2019, is sidelined at the moment after sustaining a cruciate ligament tear in June.

HAMPDEN HOORAYS…Christopher Jullien sidefoots the League Cup winner over Steven Gerrard’s Ibrox side in December 2019.

The towering centre-back, who scored the League Cup winner against Steven Gerrard’s Ibrox side in December 2019 and won the treble in his first season, left Parkhead in an £850,000 move to Montpellier in August 2022.

Jullien’s time at Celtic was cut short after he suffered a serious knee injury following a sickening collision with a goalpost in a 3-0 Premiership victory over Dundee United at Parkhead on December 30 2020.

He played only 12 minutes of first-team football following surgery when he had a cameo role in the 4-0 Scottish Cup success over Raith Rovers in the east end of Glasgow on February 13 2022.

Bad luck has dogged Jullien, now 31, but at least he and his team-mates had something to cheer yesterday.

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