Brendan Rodgers has moved to dampen down expectations about Hayato Inamura.
The defender was announced as a Celtic player just before last night’s friendly against Queens Park following less than 40 senior matches in the J-League for Albirex Niigata.
There has been expectation among Celtic fans that a central defender would be signed to partner Cameron Carter-Vickers with that role being filled to varying degrees of success by a couple of players over the last four seasons.
Carl Starfelt was the preferred choice under Ange Postecoglou, last season the task was shared by Liam Scales and Auston Trusty but neither made a very convincing case to nail the position down.
As a left sided central defender it would be easy to assume that Inamura has been signed to take on that role but discussing the new defender the Daily Record reports:
Rodgers is delighted to get the Asian, but says he’s not yet first-team ready and explained: “No, he won’t be. He’s, again, a part of the investment of the club.
“To bring a player in, we’ll assess and see where he’s at as a young player. And then it’s whether he stays with the squad or whether he has to go out on loan.”
Sending Inamura out on loan will be a delicate task, deciding whether he stays in the UK to experience a physical league or goes to somewhere like Belgium where Stephen Welsh spent the second half of last season with Mechelen.
Celtic have six more friendlies to play this month with Rodgers likely to put Inamura into a few of those matches to assess exactly what level he is at.
CLICK HERE for Inamura Transfermarkt profile.
I don’t anything about the player other than he’s 23 so for Rodgers to be talking about him going on loan suggests we’ll look to sell him in a year or two. Why would we go to Japan to find a £300k player to flip? It’s very odd.
I’m totally bamboozled by our CB situation…We’re allowing …imo…2 more than decent cbs to leave…Stephen Welsh…again imo…is a good CB…but isn’t in the hunt…CCV is proving dodgy injury wise…Trusty and Scales have their critics…Beam me up Scotty.
I was listening to Ross McCormack on SSB the other night (definitely the long lost brother of wee Benny Ferguson,he’s a stuntman for him)follow the bouncing ball when this guy talks,and does he talk some shite.
Apparently Lyle Cameron went to sevco from Kilmarnock according to him then he spoke about the Morrocan Messi signing for Lille with terms agreed with the player and the team but nothing agreed or signed off with sevco in the deal but it will be a mega money deal.
BOOM! Almost a week later, Lille have moved on to and signed another 2 strikers and the Morrocan Messi is still hanging about Govan hoping to still get a game for sevco.
Now McCormack was the guy that got that gig at SSB the other night,just think who failed it for him to get.
Didn’t even know it was on in the summertime Joker…
But not listening until it’s after a defeat for Sevco…
It must be torture otherwise !