YONGIN, SOUTH KOREA - JULY 08: Shin Yamada of Japan looks on during the EAFF E-1 Men's Football Championship match between Japan and Hong Kong at Yongin Mireu Stadium on July 08, 2025 in Yongin, South Korea. (Photo by Masashi Hara/Getty Images)
Chris Sutton is concerned about the circumstances surrounding Shin Yamada’s move to Celtic.
Not about the player but the politics around his old club with a particular spotlight on Brendan Rodgers as his contract runs down.
Early on Wednesday morning Kawasake Frontale announced the departure of Yamada, Celtic weren’t named but every piece of evidence suggested that the striker would soon be a team-mate of Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda.
Later on in the day Celtic defeated Sporting Lisbon in an impressive pre-season friendly but afterwards the comments of Rodgers added to the concerns of supporters.
Reflecting on that in his Daily Record column Sutton noted:
The manager described the Japanese striker as a club signing and one he’ll assess when he gets in to see if he’s going to be one to develop for the future or one for the here and now.
I find all that stuff a bit bizarre. You don’t get this stuff elsewhere about club signings as opposed to manager signings.
Rodgers is clearly being a bit cute. He will have had the final say on the deal but it looks like he’s agreed to take a look at a low risk cheap arrival while also creating a bit of distance if he doesn’t quite work out.
It’s a strange scenario. You can’t be over-critical of a transfer policy that has made the club fortunes over the last decade and more but it doesn’t seem like Celtic don’t half make things hard for themselves when it comes to transfers.
There is no clear guidance on the future of Rodgers, trying to read into the mood music Celtic fans are drilling into transfer activity.
Even after signing Yamada the club is looking at a transfer surplus of around £15m while the team is thin on options with a very heavy reliance on Daizen Maeda.
Transfer fees have been aid for Ben Nygren, Hayato Inamura and the incoming Yamada, a Development Fee will be due on Callum Osmond with Ross Doohan and Kieran Tierney arriving as free agents.
Against that Como have paid £17m for Nicolas Kuhn, Braga spent £2m on Gus Lagerbielke with a sum also arriving from the sale of Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool.
Why don’t you publish my responses
Yamada will fit nicely into Lawwell’s 4-4-2 formation the season after next.
In addition to the transfer fees in respect of Kuhn, Lagerbielke and Frimpong that you mention, the funds raised from Kyogo’s move to Rennes in January are still swelling the coffers.
The reluctance to get out the cheque book at this stage in the window is becoming a concern. I can see no rational reason for the excessive caution displayed in our transfer dealing to date in this window. Still, plenty of time left I guess. Hey ho.
Let’s face it, Brendan Rodgers has no say in transfers. The Board has taken control and are in the process of once again fleecing the fans with the cheap buys and projects. Brendan knows his place, he’s there to manage whatever the suits decide to give him and has no voice whatsoever in who will populate the squad. He’s manager in name only and he is well aware of this. His job is to make the best of what he’s given, albeit with these constant cryptic pleas he keeps making to the suits via the media. Ange Postecoglu would not have played such a role as manager – he picked his own players and woe betide anyone who got in the way of that. Brendan is too friendly with Dermot Desmond and is being well paid to just keep stringing the fans along on his behalf.
The only thing fans can hope for this year is that these signings surprise us all and actually prove to be gems. If not, then Celtic are in for one very dodgy season. How many times have we been down this road with this Board? No other club on earth operates like they do.
Finally – chris sutton, surprisingly – has seen through Rodgers’ double speak. Sutton highlights Rodgers’ role approving the transfer but simultaneously covering his arse if it doesn’t work out by referring to it as a ‘club signing’. So the board gets the blame and Rodgers gets a free pass.
I said recently it is like experts build a Ferrari F1 car and ask Lewis Hamilton to drive it. The latter doesn’t design it but maybe makes a few suggestions.
The key here is “experts”. That is their job and no doubt well qualified and so I ask who is the expert qualified to identify good players and build a team. at Celtic?
The last one, Lawwell Jr proved woeful.
It would seem to me that that should be a priority signing and not a “nepo baby” position.
In response to the comment above, it’s clear that the Celtic Board is not in the business of building a Ferarri team for Brendan, their Lewis Hamilton. Instead, they’re buying cheap parts from around the world to knock up a stock car in time for the F1 of football – the Champions League – and Brendan is on message with that. Brendan isn’t fooling anyone with his blarney, he knows he’s just hired to drive a scrapper for how ever many laps he can get out of it before it falls apart. There are NO “experts” on the Celtic Board, but there is a significant number of confidence tricksters, or, as we once called them, chancers!
To carry the analogy on a little it is like Lawwell is buying Dunlop as opposed to Pirelli tyres and the “driver ” is saying I am not using them. A shame for the “Dunlops” as it is not their fault.
To me all this claptrap of ‘sporting director’ and ‘director of football’ and ‘technical director’ is utterly absurd…
A ‘technical director’ is someone who should be in charge of fixing computers and in charge of websites and e-mails and nothing else whatsoever to do with football for sure…
Who the hell was all these ‘titles’ for Billy McNeill or the greatest ever Celtic Manager- Mr Jock Stein…
No-one is the answer to that – They did it all with a sidekick and that was their lot !
The thing is, no-one knew that Henrik Larsson would turn out to be the player he did. He largely did that himself – or ostensibly! But even HE must have some help along the way!
A couple of experienced, old-hand coaches, who have played and/or coached and know the game may be all that we require to get the players to achieve what they are capable of!
You think of Lisbon and the first to rise from the bench at the final whistle was Sean Fallon, Stein’s assistant manager. He was possibly, as instrumental to that team’s success as anyone else, after Jock Stein!