Celtic’s striking disasters

For a club renowned for exciting football and scoring goals playing for Celtic can become something of a graveyard for strikers. For every Moussa Dembele or Gary Hooper there has been at least half a dozen who have failed- some spectacularly so. When he arrived last May, Brendan Rodgers didn't need long to sort things out with Carlton Cole and Colin Kazim Richards quickly dispatched. As we watch Dembele and Leigh Griffiths battling for a place in the side it's difficult to recall that a year ago in similar circumstances it was Richards that opened the scoring against Hearts at Tynecastle. Getting the supply right is the key to getting the best from your strikers, with Scott Sinclair and James Forrest the players at Rodgers' disposal fit perfectly into his system- could Cole or Richards have been more successful under Brendan? Fortunately that is a question that will never be answered. Like goalkeeping being a striker is the most demanding position on the park, when it works out the rewards are fantastic- when it doesn't it can be tragic. NADIR CIFTCI He was a good Dundee United striker but there was no frenzy among Celtic fans to sign up the Turkish Dutchman. An end of season biting incident would surely put off a bid from Celtic but despite the threat of a lengthy domestic ban a fee of £1.5m was paid out with a four year contract to match. Ciftci never looked right in a Celtic shirt, being played ahead of Leigh Griffiths didn't help matters. After a six match domestic ban he was sent on loan to Turkey in January, his return and a change of manager made little difference, he is currently on loan at Pogon Szczecin but the early signs aren't promising. TEEMU PUKKI Another Tynecastle connection, he made a scoring debut away to Hearts in September 2013 and we all thought that Gary Hooper had been successfully replaced. Not. Early on Neil Lennon discussed Pukki's quiet personality as it became obvious that he wasn't going to live up to expectations. A couple of goals against KR Reykjavik at Murrayfield under Ronny Deila briefly raised hopes but he was soon on his way on loan to Brondby before the deal was made permanent. MIKU Fortunately the Venezuelan was only signed on loan but midway through the season it was clearly game over for the Getafe striker. He was brought in on transfer deadline day, played in the famous win over Barcelona but couldn't cope with the switch in style from La Liga to fitbaw Scots style. He went on to roam the globe in various outposts and is back in Spain with Real Vallecano. LASSAD NOUIOUI A Georgios Samaras lookalike and not dis-similar in playing style either. He scored a couple of important goals at Pittodrie and Tynecastle but never quite seemed to come to terms with the demands and expectations. To be fair he cut short his two year contract, collected an SPL winners medal. After Celtic he had spells in Portugal and Japan and is now back playing in Tunisia. AMIDO BALDE It's hard to recall the build up and anticipation that this signing created, on the back of the 2013 double win and a place in the last 16 of the Champions League it seemed like the hoops had the Midas touch. Woops, very early on it was clear that this project would need time, lots of. A goal against Liverpool in the Dublin Decider confirmed that he was indeed a player but he was just too raw to cut it at Celtic. Spells in Belgium, France and Israel have barely yielded a goal, a blood clot has now put his career in danger. PAWEL BROZEK What could go wrong in bringing in a striker looking to ensure his place at the European Championships in his home country? Again it never happened for Brozek after coming in on loan from Trabzonspor, his fortunes were summed up when he played for an hour away to Motherwell, failed to get a look in then saw Tony Watt come off the bench and score twice on his debut within ten minutes of getting on the park. Brozek did play in the European Championship Finals before resuming his travels in Spain and Poland. MO BANGURA The endorsement of Henrik Larsson no less. That bought the Sierra Leone striker time and patience but from his first touch something wasn't quite right. He never provided the intended competition to Gary Hooper and Anthony Stokes and was returned on loan to Sweden. Playing against Celtic for Elfsborg in Champions League qualifiers was the final nail in the coffin with his last sighting coming in the Chinese League just over a year ago. CARLTON COLE There were gasps of shock when the former West Ham striker appeared at Celtic Park to watch a match from the directors box. Surely not. Cole seemed entirely unsuited to the style of play that Deila was preaching and certainly wasn't a project for future sale. After impressing on trial at Lennoxtown a contract was agreed but after three months at the club the striker returned to London for family reasons and was recently linked with Billericay Town. COLIN KAZIM RICHARDS With the Cole experiment failing Celtic turned to the much travelled Kazim Richards during the final day of the January window. It was marginally more successful than the Cole 'swoop'. After scoring the opener away to Hearts in what was very close to the league decider he didn't react well to being dropped entirely the following week and was never seen again. The Turkish internationalist is now in Brazil playing for Corinthians- his autobiography should be a cracker!

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