Player Suggestions

We should absolutely spend big on a keeper- roughly in the CCV ballpark, possibly more. A ready-made keeper whose saves could help us in Europe is needed.

 

Keepers get better with age though also. I don’t think it’s too bad an investment going for someone 29+ and having them for the same cycle of 4 years as we would at the most with a young prospect. Also an older experienced player we would know what we’re getting. Yeah we won’t be able to sell them at the end for anything….but if they fit the keeper we want and is also quality?

 

Houssem Aouar is on a free and reportedly in talks with Frankfurt.

Honestly, major long shot but it’s the kinda player that would be a major coup, we’ve pretty much got the best squad possible at the moment, so we need to try and pull out the stops for guys like that who are absolute proper quality that could take us up a level.

 

Fucksake- that kind of player on a free. Major long shot indeed, but I do agree. We could sell O'Riley with no issues if he came.

 

Speaking of Japanese footballers,

Celtic can buy good players directly from J-League, or Celtic can buy Japanese footballers who are currently playing in Europe. But if they are already playing in big leagues (such as EPL, LaLiga, Bundesliga, Serie A, etc), they might NOT like to move to Scotland. In that sense, Japanese footballers showing quality in Belgium, Portugal, etc this season might be good for Celtic to target at.

For example,　Ayase Ueda, currently playing for a Belgian team, scoring 12 goals this season so far. I believe that Kyogo (Furuhashi) is a better striker, but somehow Japanese national team manager chose Ayase Ueda, not Kyogo for FIFA World Cup Qatar (he was not given much playing time, though). If Kyogo is leaving, Ayase Ueda might be good. I've heard some people are saying both of them are like Filippo Inzaghi in that they are good at positioning as striker (they are very good at running to the spots where they can easily score)

Ayase Ueda : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayase_Ueda






If Celtic is looking for someone who can play as winger (both left and right) and attacking midfielder, Yuki Soma might be good. He is currently playing in Portugal (for Casa Pia Lisbon). He was also in Japanese national team. His club is currently 7th in Portugal, then Celtic is surely a lot better for him too, IMO. Edit : The right = his wife.


These are Soma's Free Kicks for Japan and the Portuguese club. Nakamura's FK is a lot better than Soma's FK, though!







Speaking of Japanese footballers in Portugal, Morita is the best. He is playing for Sporting Lisbon, one of the best football clubs in Portugal, so he might not want to leave Sporting. However, Sporting is 4th now, and at this rate, he can't play in Champions League next season. If he wants to win titles and play in Champions League next season, he might choose Celtic. The picture below is Morita v Modric of Japan v Croatia in FIFA World Cup Qatar (Morita basically start all games for Japan and Sporting). He is a very good defensive midfielder.



Morita scoring for Sporting Lisbon





By the way, I've written 3 Japanese players above. All of them are playing for Japan's national team, not only that, all of them were from university football league. I mean, till 22 years old, they were playing for their university football teams and they were not professional. As I wrote in another thread, university football league is very serious in Japan. Footballers playing in university football leagues mean they are not under professional football clubs, which means they are for free (or very cheap). As you may know, both Hatate and Kyogo (Furuhashi) were also from Japanese university football league. So, looking at the top talents in Japanese university football league might be good too.






If Celtic is looking for a fullback, Daiki Hashioka might be good. He is currently playing in Belgium. He has never played for the top national team, but he was playing for U23 national team in Tokyo Olympics 2020. Playing for Celtic is surely a lot better than playing in Belgium, so he will be very happy to move to Scotland.





There are more, but I'll stop here because it's getting long and I assume many are getting bored already!

 

Just like in Belgium and Portugal, there are a lot of Japanese footballers playing in Netherland too. Koki Saito is 21 year old attacking midfielder / forward playing for Sparta Rotterdam now. He has never played for the top national team but he was playing for U21 national team, etc. That said, I don't know if he is good enough for Celtic. I mean, the last time I saw him playing was when he was 19 years old or so (I haven't seen him play recently). However, he's been starting most games for Sparta Rotterdam (currently 6th in Eredivisie) . He is already good enough for the 6th Dutch club now, and it means good enough to play in Scotland, if not for Celtic, I guess.



Koki Saito, 21 year old









And, my most favorite Japanese footballer who is currently playing in Netherland is Yukinari Sugawara. He is a 22 year old fullback playing for AZ Alkmaar. As a fullback, he has scored 4 goals and 9 assists this season so far. It's very impressive, considering he is a defender. AZ is the third in Eredivisie now and likely to get qualified to CL or EL, not only that, it's been rumored that some big clubs are interested in him already, so it might be a bit difficult for Celtic to get him, though. He has never played for the top national team but used to play for U21 national team, etc.



Yukinari Sugawara (he is the number 2 guy in this video)



Sorry if nobody is interested in these posts of mine

 

A pipe dream suggestion: If we sell Starfelt, we should ask Arsenal about Tomiyasu on loan. A class CB who can't get game time but would help us greatly in Champions League.

 

We should be keeping an eye on Ethan Laidlaw at Hibs.

 

@Far East Footballer how good is Shuto Machino? 3 goals in 4 for the Japan national team, 22 years old, 139 games, 37 goals and 19 assists which is decent for his age. 6’1 as well.

 

Watched Makoto Mitsuta play this morning. Decent, got something about him for sure but his style is quite hard to describe. Seemed quite Abada-ish but more polished. Very good movement though.

Was playing wing back aswell before later moving into the middle just off the striker.

 

Michael skoras at lech Poznan looks promising.

 

To be honest, I haven't seen his games enough, so a bit too early for me to judge him. A few things that I can say now are, he suddenly started scoring last year. He was suddenly chosen for the national team for FIFA World Cup. Initially, Japanese national team manager Moriyasu didn't select Machino, but Nakayama, the Japanese defender currently playing in England got injured, so Moriyasu selected Machino at the final moment. Machino was not given playing time at all in FIFA World Cup Qatar. One thing for sure is, Moriyasu chose Machino, not Kyogo Furuhashi for World Cup So, seen from Moriyasu, Machino has something that Kyogo doesn't.

As is often the case with Japanese footballers, he started scoring a lot last year when he was 22. Of course not all Japanese footballers, but a lot of Japanese footballers are not fully physically ready till 20 or 21 and many of them are not given a lot of playing time. A lot of them get ready at the age of 20 or 21 and they start scoring a lot at the age of 21 to 23.

 

Speaking of Tomiyasu, Japanese football media were reporting an interesting interview on Tomiyasu and Celtic last month.

Kieran Tierney (=ex Celtic player, currently playing for Arsenal) is trying to make Tomiyasu a Celtic fan and he sometimes watches Celtic games together with Tomiyasu. The interview was interesting and I felt Kieran Tierney loves Celtic veeeery much. He also said Nakamura is a big hero for him and Nakamura gave his boots to Kieran Tierney when he was a young boy. Whenever Celtic signed with Japanese players, he asked Tomiyasu about the Japanese players.

Kieran Tierney holding Nakamura's boots.




Kieran Tierney training with Nakamura



Kieran Tierney with Tomiyasu (Japanese defender playing for Arsenal)

 

Well, if Tomiyasu keeps getting minimal playing time, I could see Ange asking to have a word with him. In an ideal scenario, both Takehiro and Kieran come here, even if on loan.

 

Ayase Ueda (24) scored 2 goas last night. So, 3 goals in last 2 games. Here is his goal scoring scenes of last night.

 

Elie Youan at Hibs has a good record of 8 goals 7 assists in 27 , admittedly I've seen little of him but that is serious numbers to be putting up , from the little I've seen he looks strong , quick and good technically. At the moment we're over loaded at LW but worth keeping an eye on.

In the past we've too often over looked our own market and missed out on some good players , latest one being Josh Doig.

 

He is quick and quite athletic but not sure he has enough quality for us. He scored at CP earlier in the season. Even when Hibs had been poor, he looked like one of their brighter players. Worth keeping an eye on.

Will fish, on loan at Hibs from man utd, is a big dominant centre half who has had a good start and might also be worth keeping an eye on. Especially when the inevitable happens and big clubs come in for CCV.

CJ Egan-Riley who is also on loan from
Burnley has also had a very good start and looks very comfortable on the ball.

 

Duk of Aberdeen scored a very good goal at the weekend, exactly the type that would have impressed Ange.

He looks a talent at times and one we should be looking at. Quick, athletic and good dribbler of the ball.

 

Given we have now made our first signing under Ange from Korea could we see a few more?

We were strongly linked with Cho and Hyeok Kyu Kwon, even rumoured to have put in for work permits for them, so may rekindle our interest in the summer.

Some other guys worth keeping an eye on are

Yang Hyun Jun, is a 20 year old right winger with good pace and technical ability. He stood out in a K league select vs Spurs last year. He has excellent balance and on ball skills he got 8 goals and 4 assists in 31 games last year. Encouragingly he seems to be improving all the time. He is versatile in that he can play off either wing.

Next up is two CBs Lee Han Beom, 20 and Kim Ju Sung, 22. Both are 6’2, good in the air and good on the ball. The former (Lee) has a bigger reputation but the latter (Kim) is left sided and has done his military service. Kim also has good pace for a CB and both are said to read the game well. They are both around the U23 national team in the hunt for Asian Games and Olympics.

Um Won Sang 24 year old right winger who is very quick but also scores regularly. Plays for the champions Ulsan has 2 in 2 this season already and got 11 goals and 5 assists in 29 last season.

He actually looks a bit like a Abada/ Maeda hybrid, he has Maeda- esq pace but is a good finisher like Abada, also seems capable of nicking the ball of opponents and pressing better than Abada. He isn’t the most skillful dribbler but like Abada makes really intelligent runs and takes up good attacking positions. He has a better eye for a pass than either.

 

He is a tidy looking player but the question there is does he take us to the next level? I'm not sure if that but he'd certainly be a good squad member but if we're looking for next level I'm not sure if that's him, contradicts what I say about getting the cream of Scottish football but he doesn't contribute to our homegrown or national quotas. Same with Mioski, he'd be a good squad player but not someone that would immediately make us a better team.