GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - MARCH 29: Celtic's Daizen Maeda celebrates scoring to make it 1-0 during a William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and Heart of Midlothian at Celtic Park, on March 29, 2025, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Rob Casey/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Daizen Maeda is being watched by 10 clubs that will be playing in the EPL.
That is the blockbuster transfer story from Graeme Bailey of TBR football, apparently a transfer specialist.
There isn’t close to any detail in the story, basically it tells you that EPL clubs are doing their job, their recruitment teams are out watching football players.
Maeda is the top scorer in Scottish football, he has scored in the Champions League against Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, a level way above the domestic game, one which clubs take serious notice of.
The bigger story here is that 10 EPL clubs haven’t been watching Maeda.
Over the last dozen years Celtic have supplied a steady flow of players to the EPL including Virgil van Dijk.
In that case Southampton got in before Liverpool, other clubs would love to do that and turn around a £50m profit over two years.
Normally it would be after the domestic season ends before the transfer flyers start to surface but more than a month before the window opens up TBR are gearing up for action:
TBR Football chief correspondent Graeme Bailey understands that Maeda is emerging as a target for a number of Premier League clubs.
Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur have all watched the Celtic forward this year and it’s hard to imagine that the Japan international hasn’t impressed.
Four of Maeda’s goals have come in the Champions League this season, including a strike against Bayern Munich in Celtic’s narrow knockout stage defeat.
And in addition to the English sides mentioned, Aston Villa, Brentford, Fulham, Crystal Palace, West Ham United and newly-promoted Leeds United have also watched Maeda.
It’s understood that Maeda might be available for around £25m this summer — a similar fee to the deal that saw Matt O’Riley join Brighton & Hove Albion.
An offer of £25m would be accepted by Celtic for any of their players.
By throwing in 10 named clubs TBR are playing the Search Engine Optimisation game to draw in as much traffic as possible to the softest of stories.
Similar stories could be written for almost all of the Celtic first team squad, keeping tabs is a favourite term to use which means as little as ‘emerging as a target’.
In reality there will be around six or seven genuine transfer stories involving Celtic this summer, incoming and outgoing.
With dozens of online publishers jousting for attention Celtic fans can look out for similar flyers all the way through until the end of August.
Maeda and his family look as if they love it here but that would mean “nowt” to Lawwell.
TBR..Who the fluck are they?
Chief Correspondent? Probably some wee plick playing Transfer Bingo in his Maw’s basement.
The Bollox Repository?
Given that Brendan is supposedly ‘building’ a team for Europe just why the fukk should our top players be made available.
We’ve been stashing 10s of millions for yonks now and it’s time that arseholes like Lawwell were shown the door and then flung through it.
We don’t NEED to sell anyone and if we build properly we’re almost certain to get to CL football and make ‘top dollar’ there. NO SALES NECESSARY and Daizen does seem to love it here
As an aside, does anyone on here know the truth of what happened with Dominic McKay? It was a strange appointment but an even stranger departure and I smell Lawwell all over the departure. Could it be that Dominic McKay knew about the 5-Way and wanted to spill the beans? It would certainly make sense and also his fukking ‘grey’ man replacement, Lawwell again, this time for certain. Control freaks are reprehensible, self-serving bastards and our chairman, rather the PLC’s chairman, knows all about control and he’s an absolute freak to boot.
Gonna be a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng fuckin summer for those who read The Scummy’s of a Celtic persuasion !
I see on the Celtic blog James Forrest has called out Michael Gannon from the daily sevco about him saying it will take the shine of us winning the title should sevco beat us on Sunday.
Lol even if sevco do beat us their pain will still be there because on Monday we will still be champions,and they will still be a team with the middle of a doughnut to show for their season.
Scottish football journalism now consists mostly of starting a sentence with “As one insider put it… ” or “It is understood that….” What follows is the first thing that they pull out of their arse.
Just routine standard masonic prayers news ,typical orange barstewards desperate attempt,s to unsettle players,but Celtic and fans are used to it just bullshit nothing less is expected