Daizen Maeda

He was always gonna put to paper on a new deal


Club has let him enjoy his time back home with his new baby

 

The desire he shows when playing is second to none. He SHOULD be our main man not idah.

 

Don't think Idah gets the nod ahead of Maeda at all towards the end of the season if Jota hadn't been injured. Assuming all these links to wingers are legit and there's no huge offers tempting him away, think Rodgers sees Maeda as our no1 next season.

 

Should be our main starting striker for the foreseeable, he's graduated from the wing, far more effective as a front man

 

Happy with him playing on the wing or through the middle, his improvement has been remarkable and he'll do a great job wherever.

I was worried we'd lose him this window but it seems like he'll be staying, which is brilliant news for us.

 

Daizen Maeda, unfortunately for Celtic fans, is a man in demand this summer.

The Japanese machine was incredible for the Hoops last season as he plundered 33 goals in 51 appearances across all competitions.


Maeda deservedly won Celtic’s Player of the Yearaward, as well as hoovering up numerous other individual gongs.

The 27-year-old addressed his desire to score even more goals next season, although did not exactly specify where that would be.

Fenerbahce have shortlisted Maeda and were preparing a bid of over €10m, but a separate Turkish report stated at least £25m will be needed for Celtic to sell.


Tottenham Hotspur have been linked again despite the sacking of Ange Postecoglou, as 67 Hail Hail learns that there’s in fact plenty of Premier League interest in the attacker.

67 Hail Hail and our transfer correspondent Graeme Bailey understand that Fenerbahce are indeed one of Maeda’s potential suitors this summer.

We can also confirm that Tottenham have monitored Maeda, while the Japanese star is also currently on the transfer radar of Brentford.


Bailey added there’s more chance of Maeda being sold this summer than fellow Celtic winger Nicolas Kuhn, but the Hoops won’t let both leave.

Bailey exclusively told 67 Hail Hail: “I’m told that Maeda is a name that’s come up at Fenerbahce, like Marcus Tavernier and a few others. It underlines the fact they’re looking for a winger.

“I think Maeda is quite a special player to be fair. I think Maeda is one of those players who when he gets to England – which I think he might – people will be like, ‘why on Earth didn’t we sign this player two years ago?’.


He is on Brentford’s radar. Tottenham have looked at Maeda as well at points. There’s an awful lot of teams who have looked at Maeda but just haven’t pulled the trigger.

“I do think that he’s more likely to go than Nicolas Kuhn, from what I’m told. Kuhn had a good start, but he tailed off a little bit. Obviously Celtic are not going to let them both go.

“From what I understand, it’s more likely Maeda leaves, and I think he is looking at it.

“He’s got some big clubs after him, Fenerbahce obviously being one. I think the Saudi Pro League enquired as well, he was on their long list. But there is Premier League interest there in Maeda.”

 

Graeme Bailey talks *

 

Theyll bench him the moment be does a wild cross into the stands. Only we understand that. He's staying.

 

Going nowhere. New deal to be signed and he's going to smash it even more next season

 

If a bid comes in for 25M he will probably go.

No idea where these valuations for 10MM are coming from though.

 

Probably lifted from transfermarkt, their player valuations are absolutely hilarious, sure they had Kent as the most valuable player in scotland at one point.

 

Make that £25 million

 

At least they got the order of the top 5 right. Went to * after that.

 

The values are mental; but I'm genuinely impressed that they got the top 5 (including the order) so spot on!

 

Daizen Maeda has revealed he can't wait for another crack at the Champions League with Celtic this year.


And he reckons the expanded competition helped improve his game.

The Japanese ace was a multiple Player of the Year award winner and helped Celtic to the double before they suffered a shock Scottish Cup Final defeat to Aberdeen.

Celtic also qualified for the next stage of the Champions League before they were edged out by this season's Bundesliga winners Bayern Munich 3-2 on aggregate.

And Maeda insisted he loved the new look competition after admitting a 7-1 battering by Borussia Dortmund made them rethink their approach.

He said: "I really enjoyed playing in the Champions League this season because there were so many games and it gave us a lot of different challenges.

"I think the new format has been great and I am excited to try it again this upcoming season. It helped me improve.

"We played some great teams. Personally, I actually thought the best side we played was Atalanta because they didn't appear to have any weaknesses.

"Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund were very strong, but they had some weaknesses in their team, but when we played Atalanta, there was nothing for us to work on.


When we faced Dortmund, we chose to go head-on with them and lost seven goals.

"It was this defeat that made us realise that it is unrealistic to go toe-for-toe against strong teams at this stage. That is why we learned from our mistakes and turned to a pragmatic approach.

"I scored four goals and was happy with my performances.

"We had a chance to win the treble, but lost the Scottish Cup Final on the last day of the season so I still think we have room for improvement at Celtic.

"Personally, although everyone spoke about how I scored more goals, I think my increase in assists were more satisfying for me.

"I like to defend too. It's muscle memory for me. When the team loses the ball, because I am the first line of defence, my body will instinctively start chasing back. This defensive awareness has been deeply rooted in my bones and I don't need to think about it."

And Maeda, in an interview in his homeland, revealed how he got his inspiration for his iconic knee slide celebration that he did 33 times during the campaign.

He explained: "My son was doing knee sliding exercises at home. I was inspired by that and thought I could do it too. I thought I'd give it a go and it was surprisingly easy, so I started doing it after that.

"It's easy to do in Scotland because the grass is always wet."

 

If he doesn’t stop talking like this I think I might get pregnant