Albirex Niigata have announced the departure of Hayato Inamura with Celtic almost certainly his destination.
Since Saturday there has been some very definitive reports on the transfer of the left-sided central defender who was in action for the final time yesterday in the colours of Albirex Niigata.
The J-League enjoys a short pause just now, there are no matches played between July 5 and 16 which allows clubs to deal in transfer activities then resume with the squad that they intend to use through until the end of the season in November.
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— ????????? (@albirex_pr) June 30, 2025
TRANSLATION:
Inamu, soaring to the world #HayatoInamura has left the team as of 6/29 to undertake procedures and preparations for a transfer to an overseas club. We will provide further updates once the details are officially finalized. Please take a look at Inamu’s passionate comments.
Namura should join Celtic this week with a match fitness edge on his new team-mates.
Friday’s friendly away to Queens Park looks like being too early but after a few days of training he could appear in the match away to Cork City on July 8.
After that the serious preparations begin in the Algarve quickly followed by matches against Sporting Lisbon, Newcastle United, Ajax and one other match during the four team Como tournament.
I wonder if and when Celtic are going to spend some serious money on those much-needed quality players. They seem to be scraping around the bottom of the barrel again, and that’s worrying.
Do you honestly trust this board? They have let us down every year. We are money making machine that happens to play football!!! We will be still scrambling to make signings at the end of the transfer window.
No harm to the boy, but ffs Celtic! We’ve signed three players (including Donny Osmond) who will be nowhere near the first team
Welcome to Celtic both you and callum
Serious Money.
Trust The Board..
Present management squad past 2 seasons.
Probably near £70 M. Players , off the Radar wages
K T. Free agent, Big large signing On Pension.. + Wages
A week in Football is life Time
In Glasgow it’s 10 minutes.
Some don’t realise how fortunate they are
Perhaps The following would bring more satisfaction. Waking up to new Board.
Craig Whyte
King
Murray
Green
Murray
Editor: Summer 2023 money from Jota and Starfelt wasted on seven Mark Lawwell projects- not a single first team player has emerged. Summer 2024 three players signed in last two days of transfer window, January 2025 Kyogo sold with no attempt at getting a replacement #manageddecline
2 free transfers £50.000 on 17 year old £1.5 million on centre half from japan £1.500 million on a lad from sweden are they going to frighten” teams in champions leauge” would it not be better to buy very good quality players around the £10 million range and a few project players. Maybe rodgers will make them buy a outstanding one but doubt it .
Serious Money.
Trust The Board..
Present management squad past 2 seasons.
Probably near £70 M. Players , off the Radar wages
K T. Free agent, Big large signing On Pension.. + Wages
A week in Football is life Time
In Glasgow it’s 10 minutes.
Some don’t realise how fortunate they are
Perhaps The following would bring more satisfaction. Waking up to new Board.
Craig Whyte
King
Murray
Green
Murray
Reading the above comments, I think we all more or less agree that this transfer window will be same old, same old. All they’ve done so far is spend some of the money they made from Leverkusen’s sale of Frimpong to Liverpool. They haven’t touched a single penny of what they already have in the bank, which is substantial.
Brendan Rodgers kept banging on about adding quality to the team for the Champions League. Well, all he’s managed thus far is KT on a free. That’s a good addition but he’ll be the only quality they add because others of his stature will cost big money. It will be fingers crossed then that the Nygren and Osman lottery choices pay off. And look at the J League player they just brought in – he’s only played professional football for six months and is coming from a team under threat of relegation. I really don’t know how Brendan can keep his mouth shut about this fleecing of fans when his own reputation is on the line. Mind you, £20m between Engels and Idah raises serious questions about Brendans ability to spend bigger money wisely.
Glad somebody else agrees with me…Every window is the same.
Hopefully the better, more expensive players have more options to explore and therefore not readily available in the early days of the window.
However at some point on the bridge of Celtics transfer oversight, duffle coated, binocular clad Jack Hawkins and Kenneth More confirm they see no ships coming and then realisation, finally it dawns, we have seen this old picture before.
It’s the hope that kills us !! Only good thing, they are unlikely to see the rangers emerging on the horizon either
I see they’re now eyeing up another cheap project in the form of some Irish Kid from Cork City. Not a quality signing in sight – and there won’t be anytime soon. What they’re spending right now on players makes the biscuit tin appealing.