Ange Postecoglou gave a wry smile when he was asked about Daizen Maeda being linked with a January transfer to Celtic.
The Celtic boss worked with Maeda until June when he switched to Scotland with Postecoglou speaking openly about returning to Japan in January once the J League season is completed.
The 24-year-old striker has scored 18 goals in 30 matches this season, following the success of Kyogo Furuhashi all of the pieces appear to be in place for another delve into the Japanese market. Tellingly Postecoglou mentioned that he had signed Maeda for the Marinos during his answer to the question.
Celtic brought in 12 players during the summer with Postecoglou admitting that it had been a chaotic window. Four of those signings- Liam Shaw, Osaze Urhoghide, Liam Shaw and Giorgos Giakoumakis have yet to start a match but there are still areas of the squad that need strengthening with Kyogo by some distance the only reliable goalscorer currently available.
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We will neither be confirming nor denying. Look there is no denying that the Japanese League is one that I know very well. I guess I’ve got an advantage there I know Japanese football really well, I know Daizen well, I brought him into Yokohoma Marinos.
Again, I can definitely confirm we are not in advanced talks with anyone to sign anyone at the moment. Yeah, we’ll be casting the net far and wide, we’re not just going to limit it to the Japanese league.
I think that with the way that we’ve started the season, seeing some of our younger players, the way that they are playing I think that we’ve become an attractive destination for players.
So, we’re certainly not going to rush into that, I think that there is no doubt that we will be linked with a lot of players. Some if it is their agents wanting to get their names in there, others it is people putting two and two together to get 700, you figure out that they are wildly off the mark but that is OK.
There is no denying that we’ve started work on that but we won’t be in any rush.
CLICK HERE for Maeda profile on Transfermarkt.