GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 05: Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers during a William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and St Mirren at Celtic Park, on January 05, 2025, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
More than a fortnight after Kyogo Furuhashi arrived in Rennes Chris Sutton still can’t see the logic in Celtic’s transfer activity.
The return of Jota certainly cushioned the blow but bittersweet would be the kindest description of that exchange
Jota instantly improves Celtic’s options on the wing but Brendan Rodgers could already count on the five star service of Daizen Maeda and Nicolas Kuhn who have led the way with goals and assists.
Without Kyogo almost all the striking burden falls on Adam Idah, Maeda can play more central but beyond that there is just Johnny Kenny and Daniel Cummings with three substitute appearances between them.
The timing of Kyogo’s departure will forever remain a mystery, even more so with each day that passed without a replacement arriving.
Rodgers now has four months to get by with the striking options that he has been left with, it is highly unlikely that it will impact on Celtic’s SPFL prospects but another striker and catching Bayern Munich on an off day or two could have made the Champions League Play Off round very interesting.
In the Daily Record Sutton explained:
Celtic fans seemed happy enough the other night as their team was demolishing Dundee.
Jota was back in full flow like he’d never been away, Adam Idah was bang in form and back in the goals and Daizen Maeda was doing his best Henrik Larsson impression. It was like the supporters had forgotten all about Kyogo and his departure for Rennes. That’s fair enough – but I can’t help but feel the failure to replace him is a major disappointment. Listen, Celtic are 13 points clear in the Premiership with 13 games to go. I don’t think it’s done yet but I can see why plenty of people do.
The Scottish Cup is there to be won too and I’m looking at this week’s Bayern Munich game and wondering why Celtic haven’t given themselves the best possible chance of a result? We know they’re up against it.
Celtic could have signed a £25million striker and still got battered by Bayern. But that’s not the point. By failing to build from a position of strength, they’ve hampered chances of causing an upset rather than improving them..
And it’s yet another transfer window where fans are left wondering what went wrong. Brendan Rodgers said he knew Kyogo wanted to go for months and he wanted a replacement.
This wasn’t like Moussa Dembele dropping a bombshell on deadline day. Celtic had plenty of time to prepare for his departure. It defies belief they allowed Kyogo to go without having a new man lined up.
Ask yourself, why is Kieran Tierney not at the club right now? He certainly wanted to be, rather than making five minute cameos from the Arsenal bench.
But the reason Celtic will have to wait until the summer is because Arsenal didn’t want to let him go right now and the player had to lump it. Why did that rule not apply at Celtic? If Celtic were not sure of getting a replacement, Kyogo should have been told to hold fire.
I get there was big money involved but it’s not as if money is tight at Parkhead. By letting him leave Celtic completely showed their hand. Clubs knew they badly needed a striker and would be desperate. No wonder the prices shot up. It’s rookie stuff when it comes to negotiations.
As I’ve said before, it was just an unnecessary risk. And now Celtic are going to be sweating on the fitness of Idah until the end of the season – while putting a huge burden on Daizen Maeda.
The latter will be a huge loss for the Bayern game and just underlines how mystifying the window turned out. There are questions to be asked about the recruitment process at Parkhead. Celtic have left it late a few times now and it’s finally caught up with them.
It would be handy to know what football doctor Paul Tisdale brought to the table? It’s not like he unearthed Jota, Tierney or Jeffrey Schlupp – who says he only got a call at 2pm on deadline day. Is the issue chief executive Michael Nicholson getting deals over the line?
Why did Rodgers approve Kyogo’s sale if there were no guarantees over who was coming in? There seems to be an admittance things have not been quite right in that department but no apportioning of blame’s happened.
Either way, it’s left Rodgers short. I know he’s been diplomatic in public, but he surely can’t be happy. In the past this kind of situation might have had him looking to the exit. This time he is talking about getting on with it, but it’s not a great look for the club and there is a tinge of sadness at what might have been going into this Bayern game now.
So far this season Celtic haven’t had much to cope with in the way of injuries, hopefully that continues but if Idah was missing for a couple of games Rodgers would be raking through his squad for alternatives.
 (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Celtic have always been the same they want money in before they spend money out The board need to think about advancement and growing before profit!!
So now the big money transfer fees sevco should have received for the Morrocan Messi(£30 million quid from Spurs)and the stuntman for Roberto Carlos(£40 million from Cheksea)are on hold until the Summer,before another wee round of FAKE NEWS TRANSFER BINGO to keep the klan fans happy.
With the daily sevco on GROUNDHOG DAY repeating the same shite from January.
I think they sold Kyogo in this window because they didn’t want the backlash in the summer when they sell Khun as well, they know the fans wouldn’t accept losing our 2 best players in the same window, just my opinion though HH
A very interesting point indeed Chris and not without the realms of possibility for sure
First up…Yes it was a bad window…but it usually always is…So no surprise there…and no point banging on about it.
I was as shocked and angry as anyone regarding the Kyogo situation…but Sutton’s assessment that we should have refused to let him go …is just plain stupid.
We now know the wee man had been unhappy for a while ( have your pick on how long ) so there would be no point in forcing him to stay…when he wanted out.
I totally agree that a replacement should have been sought and signed in plenty time…but that takes us back to Celtic and transfer windows…and the two don’t mix.
At face value…The Board hasn’t a clue….but maybe Ker Ching is the object of the exercise…in which case…they do.
If there’s a bright side ..it’s this…
Wednesday night’s display against Dundee showed that perhaps another striker isn’t as vital as we thought…with goals coming from 4 different players.
Bottom line is…Kyogo’s gone…He hasn’t been replaced…The Board are not fit for purpose…but ONWARDS AND UPWARDS CELTIC.
He’s right – “It would be handy to know what football doctor Paul Tisdale brought to the table?
It’s a question lots of us would like answered.
Genuinely believe Kyogo had a bit of a petted lip regards Idah.
Maeda is more than making up for it. Sutton’s trying to double down on his assertion it would impact on performances. Hasn’t so far.
We may play football the Glasgow Celtic way but we also do business the Glasgow Celtic way – all the way from trying to flog an unwilling McGrory to Arsenal by telling him they were going to Lourdes then happening to bump into the Arsenal board in London (!!!) to selling the Quality Street Kids out from underneath Jock and replacing them with donkeys and rejects to selling Charlie Nicholas and Brian McClair when teams should have been built around them and I daresay they tried to flog the Maestro too but like McGrory he just wouldn’t go, to the modern era of not offering contracts matching the expectations of our best players and effectively forcing them to look elsewhere to get the going rate for their talents. It’s never changed. The exception was Henrik, an incredibly far-sighted piece of business that is on a par with the appointment of O’Neill in importance with regard to the level of success the club has enjoyed for the last quarter of a century, but it seems we’ll always be cursed with the Del Trotter mentality in the boardroom and those responsible for tying Larsson down on that contract have long since left the building.
Sutton is only saying what us guys have been saying for a week…
And he gets no kudos – Not fucking one for spouting it in that utter Scummy fuckin rag !
I don’t think Kyo-go-go-go liked the wingers on bigger numbers, Daizen on 20 and Kuhn 18. Playing deeper and not being the focal point. With Ange it was all about feed Kyogo and feed him right.
BR hasn’t seen the best fae Kyogo and he was getting rotated while Maeda and kuhn played all the time and clocked up headlines and goals.
Is £10m shabby furra 30 year old with a shoulder joint like a barbie doll … I think we financially did well but weakened the team.
And BR hinted early in the window “we want to finish the window with a stronger squad” and that’s our aim. So it wasn’t his decision and I don’t think he likes how it played out.
As long as we’ve got craoky auld crusty shittyarses running the club, we’ll always have to swallow their medicine.
Needs a younger more ambitious board, one who can visualise a future where we’re competitive outside of Scotland.
Predicted £150M turnover this year, which is more than some EPL clubs. So let’s not business model jargon ham this up, it’s greed and lack of insights from wrinkly cunts that like our money.
Don’t want to spend it during transfer window? Fine. Financially I’ve withdrawn my support, just my business model shadowing theirs, see how they fuckin like it.
Not another penny will I spend, thrifty is what they want it’s what they’ll get