Player Suggestions

Unsure how realistic it is, but Kelleher at Liverpool is looking to move on in Summer for game-time and from what I've seen of him, he'd be an excellent replacement for Hart. Good with the ball with his feet, a decent shot-stopper, and seems to be good at saving penalties.

I think he may be a little out of our price range though.

 

As you may know, Hatate was playing for his university football team till a few years ago till he was 22 years old. Here in Japan (I'm Japanese), both high school football and university football are serious and many good & potential footballers are playing for their high school / university teams not for the youth teams of professional clubs. For example, Kyogo Furuhashi was also playing for his university team. Now, Kaoru Mitoma is playing for Brighton and it looks like he is already the best 1v1 dribbler and one of the best left wingers in EPL. Actually, both Hatate and Mitoma were one of the best footballers in J-League (= Japanese professional football league) in their first professional season. So, basically, the best university footballers in Japan are already good to play in Scotland IMO. University footballers = *, and * means you can get them (almost) for free. So, it might be good that Celtic will pay attention to the best footballers playing in the Japanese university football league.

High school boys are not usually physically ready but recently, European top clubs (such as Bayern) have started buying Japanese high school footballers (in Japan, when they are 18 years old, they graduate from high school and German clubs were buying some Japanese 18 year old footballers this winter). They are not physically ready, so they are usually sent to their U23 teams.

When Nakamura was playing for Celtic, there were only a few Japanese footballers playing in Europe but now nearly 100 are playing in Europe (many in Germany, etc). When Japanese professional football league = J League was founded 30 years ago, there were only 10 clubs but now 60. Japanese football is growing. I hope I'll see more Japanese footballers playing for competitive football clubs in Europe and some help Celtic to win more games in the Champions League.

I'm a Japanese football fan and I think I can provide a bit of Japan + Asia related football information with this forum. I don't want to ruin this beautiful Celtic forum by posting Japanese footballer too much, so if I do a bit too much, please tell me so and I'll refrain from posting!.



By the way, Reo Hatate makes "S" gesture when he scores. I think it's S of Shizuoka Gakuen, the name of his high school. When I was watching high school football on tv, I found a very good high school footballer playing for Shizuoka Gakuen and he was also making S whenever he scored. Number 10 in Green Shirt is the footballer (as you can see, he is a great dribbler). The video was filmed in 2021 and he already graduated from high school and joined a professional football club, but I showed the video to show high school football is serious in Japan to the extent that the games are on tv (Due to COVID-19, not many people on the stadium in the video but there are a lot of people without COVID-19 usually)

 

@Far East Footballer
Do not worry. Many members watch J-League highlights and post video links in the hope we sign more Japanese players.

 

By the way, how easy or difficult for Scottish clubs to get teenaged Japanese footballers?. I mean, I know it's difficult for Japanese footballers to get a proper work permit / visa to play in EPL. To play in EPL, Japanese footballers are required to have played for the national team for the specific hours in the past 2 years or so. Otherwise, the Japanese footballers need to have high enough value in the transfer market. So, "Neither" of Hatate and Kyogo Furuhashi could have played in EPL even if they had wanted to when Celtic bought them due to lack of national team match experiences. However, they were able to join Celtic, so I assume there are two different visa rules for foreign footballers between England and Scotland.


My point is, Celtic is "financially" weaker / smaller side if compared to the European giants such as EPL's top 6 clubs, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern and PSG. So, Celtic need to discover hidden gems more than those European giants do. One of the reasons why I root for Celtic in Champipns League is actually Celtic is financially smaller and thrifty beautiful traditional club. I mean, the football clubs I hate the most are dirty filthy extravagant clubs like Chelsea, Manchester City, etc. I really want to see Celtic beat such dirty extravagant clubs in Champions League.


Bayern got this 18 year old Japanese footballer last month (during winter transfer window).




Another Bundesliga club Borussia MG got a 18 year old Japanese striker during this winter transfer window. He has never signed with a Japanese professional football club but he was playing for a very competitive Japanese high school football team (He kept showing his amazing quality in high school football tournaments). Even Hatate, Mitoma, etc were veeeeery cheap when Celtic and Brighton bought them. So, such "unknown" 18 year old Japanese footballers must be even cheaper. One question is, Scottish clubs can get footballers like them?. I know EPL clubs can't get them.

 

Scottish work permit rules are less strict than those in England. Although, Celtic rarely use 18 year-old players in the main squad. In my opinion, Japanese players should wait a bit before going to Europe. Bayern had a Korean player they never gave a chance. Now he's at Freiburg. Fukui will have to be very patient.

 

Not sure of all the ins and outs of the work permits but there is different routes in England and Scotland.

Scotland has a lower benchmark as the quality of the league is lower. It is the ground often for appeal that a player has serious potential or the potential to play regularly at the level they are being signed too.

Hearts and Motherwell signed Japanese players in January who don’t have caps. I do know that they have to be at least 18 post Brexit.

It is actually something that we don’t make enough off that players come here do well then they will be in a good place to get a EPL work permit. It is why so many young guys that the big EPL sides sign they end up in Belgium and the likes to basically play regularly and qualify for a work permit, the next season.

It is a case by case basis but there isn’t much that stops getting one it the player is talented enough.

 

Any good keepers in the J League? Was watching a fair bit of Yokohama FM and I really liked their keeper. Excellent with the ball at his feet and was cutting through Roma's press in a friendly haha. Moved to MLS now I think but anyone similar or better?

 

I think keepers in J-League have been improving a lot, however, it's a bit difficult for me to say about J-League keepers in this Celtic form. For both Japanese keepers's side and foreign football clubs's side, there are risks. I mean, basically, only one keeper will be given enough playing time per football club. Plus, foreign clubs don't know if the Japanese keepers can be good enough in the foreign leagues. So, not many Japanese keepers try to play abroad and not many foreign clubs try to buy Japanese keepers. Another issue is language. Japanese economy is the third biggest after US and China, so almost all foreign things are translated into Japanese. As a result, average Japanese people are not very motivated to learn English seriously. Language skill is also very important for keepers playing abroad, in my opinion. I want to see a Japanese keeper playing for Celtic in the future, but I don't think it's the time yet. At least, one or a few keepers need to show they are good enough in competitive European leagues too.

 

This Scottish football media are mentioning Kosei Tani, a Japanese J-League keeper. However, I don't know much about him. I'm busy watching a lot of European football games where Japanese footballers are playing and I tend to watch J-League games for attacking players, and I usually don't pay attention to keepers much when watching J-League games, to be honest. https://www.footballscotland.co.uk/.../celtic-summer-transfer-options-ange-26168482

 

I really liked Kosei Tani at the last Olympics. Decent at controlling the ball with his feet, and came out to catch crosses.

You're completely right on English language skill being necessary for a keeper, though.

 

Koki Ogawa. May be one to keep tabs on this season.

 

Even though he's on red hot form in the Bundesliga (just scored his 5th in 6 consecutive games, and assisted), Jae-seong Yi of Mainz might be attainable, since he's 30, and the gap between 6th place that leads to Europe and the rest (Mainz 7th right now) is too big. If we sell a midfielder and/or a winger this summer, we'll need a replacement. This guy is hard-working and versatile. He might just be another Aaron Mooy in the making, and surely Oh would love to have company.

 

Transfermarkt has Kelleher valued at €8M. But you are right, he is a very good goalkeeper.

 

I just finished watching the game highlights and I know it’s just highlights of the game but he looked good. I bet Ange has his scouts watching this one. That left foot finish was as much beautiful as it was powerful. Just what we need.

 

Full game on Youtube but blew away J2 last season. 26 goals is impressive. If he takes that into J1 then he could be worth looking at. Wyscouted him a while ago and his link up play was pretty good aswell though he didn't look particularly quick.

 

Maybe because it’s the J League, but he’s got a bit of Crouch about him. Got that tall languid style, think he’s quicker than he looks, because he still runs past players. As a 3rd striker, I’d take him over Cho.

 

He’ll get a * move to Fulham/west ham/Southampton/Everton/add any similar team and be paid 80k a week. Would be excellent for us but can’t see it ever happening although we could afford that £8m value

 

The only thing is, I can't see/think of any current PL team that needs a goalkeeper. Even from what you mentioned, Fulham has Leno, West Ham has Areola and Fabianski, Southampton just spent big on Bazunu and are almost certainly going down, and Everton has Pickford.

I think a keeper is an area we should be ideally spending big on and should be aiming as high as possible for a young, long-term replacement like Kelleher.

 

Realistically, there is no young long term keeper for us, if they're that good we wouldn't be able to hold them more than 3 years really if they are young and good. I'd love us to get another Forster or Boruc for a 5 year term but can't see it these days, not saying we shouldn't aim at someone like Kelleher but I'd not imagine he'd be a main target of ours

 

I think Kelleher would be a good fit for us.
We should start the ball rolling now and make the enquiries.