Doubts raised over Celtic’s Japan Tour
Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v Motherwell - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - May 14, 2022 Celtic's Yosuke Ideguchi, Kyogo Furuhashi, Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda celebrates winning the Scottish Premiership with the trophy Action Images via Reuters/Molly Darlington
When Dan Orlwitz tweets Celtic fans pay attention, over almost two years Dan has been the Man when it comes to any Japanese related issue.
The reporter for the Japan Times was at the matches and media conferences of Yokohama Marinos when attention for Celtic’s next manager switched to Ange Postecoglou.
Orlowitz isn’t the man to break exclusive transfer news but when reports emerge about Daizen Maeda or Reo Hatate the Japan Times reporter can sift behind Google Translate to present the real story based on his local knowledge.
So whatever Celtic were originally going to announce today isn’t happening for Reasons, but I’ve got this pretty much confirmed:
? Japan tour ??
?? Asia tour ????— Dan Orlowitz (@aishiterutokyo) April 28, 2023
I’d heard otherwise but we shall see! Just tweeting what I know.
— Dan Orlowitz (@aishiterutokyo) April 28, 2023
Following a successful two match trip to Australia in November there has been a few reports discussing match in Japan to be played in July. Manchester City, Paris Saint Germain and Bayern Munich are also expected to play in Japan but whether Celtic play local sides or ‘glamour friendlies’ has yet to be established.
Signing Oh Hyeon-gyu in July has raised the prospect of playing in South Korea a possibility but there has been nothing directly from Celtic other than Postecoglou confirming that they are working on things.
The new SPFL Premiership season starts on the weekend of August 5/6 which keeps plenty of July dates clear to play in Japan or elsewhere before a week back in Scotland preparing for the first domestic contest.