Kyogo Furuhashi is the top striker at Celtic and has proved his worth. The Japanese is first pick and rightly so.
Brendan Rodgers keeps saying he wants quality and adding a player as capable as Kyogo in the striking department seems the ideal scenario. We know all of this. We’ve been hearing it for weeks. But here’s the thing. Unless you are signing someone to take Kyogo’s place in the starting side, how are you going to convince a proven player with quality to come to your club to sit on the bench and play second fiddle? More pertinently, how much are you going to have to pay to get a guy who dislodges Kyogo?
This is a dilemma facing Celtic right now. The fans are screaming for signings. The manager and his captain Callum McGregor are screaming for signings. But I can imagine it’s a tricky sell. Or buy, if you prefer. There are three types available at this stage of the season. The first are the ones who are playing out of their skin. Everyone wants them and you better be shelling out the top dollar if you want them.
The second lot are the guys who aren’t getting games and want out to play. The first question you ask is with them is: Why aren’t you playing? Why is your club letting you go? Aren’t you that good? Sure there are exceptions, but, mainly, the ones hunting escape routes are doing it because they aren’t good enough to get into their own team. I give you Gustaf Lagerbielke, Marco Tillo, Yuki Kobayashi, et al.
The third batch are the kids getting loaned-out, the unknowns and the, whisper it, projects. Now you can get good ones. There are plum examples in recent Januarys for Celtic. Let’s be honest, Reo Hatate was, at the time, a near project. He didn’t have a lot of game-time in his career, he wasn’t really known to fans here and available on a tiny fee in comparison to his talent because no-one else was looking where Ange Postecoglou was looking.
Postecoglou was ahead of the game. Hatate was, and is, brilliant. Matt O’Riley. No-one was really looking at him either performing for MK Dons. Rodgers now needs to be ahead of the game in the same way and find this year’s versions of Hatate and O’Riley and not, with respect, versions of Jeremy Toljan or Oli Burke. Nicolas Kuhn feels project to me. And Rodgers has been quite clear he wants quality and not projects. So will the German be a Daizen Maeda or a Marian Shved?
There are areas which are absolute priority. Greg Taylor is having to carry the entire load on his shoulders at left-back because Alexandro Bernabei isn’t good enough to replace him.
That position is a must. That’s no slight on Taylor who keeps doing the job, but he needs to be properly backed-up at the very least and upgraded if possible, especially with the Champions League in mind.
I’d also wonder if Rodgers might look to the opposite side and deliberate whether Alistair Johnston offers enough of a threat in the final third of the pitch for a modern-day full back. With two lefties in Liam Scales and Maik Nawrocki and two for the right in Cameron Carter-Vickers and Stephen Welsh, is a new centre-back even a priority? I’m not so sure.
Midfield is interesting. A month ago, it was begging for a signing, but with Paulo Bernardo stepping up before the break and Hatate returning from injury, that’s like a couple of new additions for part two of the season. Long-term planning is, of course, key. O’Riley is going to attract a big offer in the summer and Celtic need to be ready for his departure before it even happens.
Ideally, that replacement would be in the door right now because, as I have said many times, Celtic need to be better prepared for Europe next term. Frankly, this season’s build-up to the Champions League was a shambles. There needs to be a degree of gamble on outlay to make sure the title is won because this race is firmly on and I don’t feel Rangers will go away.
They might have a dip, but they won’t disappear, so Rodgers needs to bolster the unit. It doesn’t feel simple, but Celtic have been dominant for a decade and they need to be convincing players they are headed for the Champions League group stages next season. Striker is the big one. I don’t actually think Oh Hyeon-gyu is too bad and, in many ways he’s ideal in the fact he’s young and accepts that playing second fiddle to Kyogo is his role in the squad.
That’s fine with an Oh. But go up the grades to the proven hitman of genuine quality and how do you convince one to spend most of his life on the bench? For example, people have spoken about Lawrence Shankland. Money apart, why on earth would he leave Hearts to sit with the subs and ruin his chances of making Euro 2024?
You look at Giorgos Giakoumakis. No matter how many goals he scored at Celtic, he wasn’t shifting Kyogo out of the side unless the Japanese was either injured or being rested. Champions League? Cup Finals? Old Firm games? Kyogo started. End of.
It’s the job of Rodgers, Mark Lawwell and the recruitment team to find the answer. Unless you shell out big money to get someone to take Kyogo’s place, it becomes a tricky balancing act. And Celtic have to walk the wire carefully because a title’s at stake and there’s no safety net for second in Glasgow.
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