Ange Postecoglou has given a strong nod towards Celtic’s rumoured triple transfer raid on the J-League next month.
At tea-time on Saturday word emerged from Japanese news agencies that Celtic were well down the road towards signing Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi when the window opens in 26 days time.
A striker, left-sided defender and midfielder would add nicely to the Celtic squad with Postecoglou knowing the exact qualities that can be found in the J League.
Kyogo Furuhashi has made as big an impact as Shunsuke Nakamura more than a decade ago- paving the way for more recruits from the far east.
In six months Postecoglou has knocked some shape and purpose into the Celtic squad with fans eagerly looking forward to further additions during the January window.
The Scotsman reports the Celtic boss saying:
Myself, Michael (acting CEO Nicholson), all the key people at the football club, we’re working really hard. We want to be well organised and get the right players in. I know what we need in terms of making our squad a bit more well-rounded and robust for a challenging second half of the year.
We’ll just keep working away. No deals are done yet, nothing’s been signed. I know people get excited about names and I’ve probably been linked with the whole of the J-League. There’s also the Korean league that is decent, if you want to go fishing there. There will be plenty of names
From my perspective, we know what we need – and I’m fairly confident we‘ll get them in and get them in early.
Asked specifically about the ability of players from the J-League settling quickly in Scotland he added:
I don’t want to say that! Because everyone will go there and start looking. I’m obviously at an advantage because I worked there. It would be silly of me not to use the experience I have and the knowledge I have.
That’s why we got Kyogo here. I was 100 per cent certain he would do well, especially with the way we play. And it’s not just Kyogo. If you look at all the big leagues around the world, you’ll see Asian players.
Not just from Japan but from Korea, from Australia, from Iran. There are some very good footballers on that side of the world. But if people don’t want to look there, I’m happy to be the only one.
Celtic will have two weekends off in January with Scottish Cup tie at Alloa falling 20 days after the Glasgow derby- and four days before facing Hearts again at Tynecastle.
Just hope ange gets the backing to get in the players he wants no more of liewell and Desmond sticking in and telling managers who to buy to many agents and friends????
Making big bucks from celtic buying complete duds hope thats in the past it was a total disgrace how we bought players when liewell ??? Was in control.