As Celtic move closer to the January window, the flurry of activity that was brewing yesterday regarding player ins and outs was truly incredible.
From Sky Sports journalist Anthony Joseph revealing that Celtic are about to activate Jota’s release clause and the possible departure of Vasilis Barkas, to Ekrem Konour revealing that Daizen Maeda’s transfer is expected to be completed by January and Greek journalist Giannis Chorianopoulos confirming interest in Barkas, it was an astounding day for Celtic fans and transfer speculation.
And as the rumours hot up about Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda’s transfer to the Hoops, there has been some confusion on what Celtic would be required to pay for the duo.
It was widely believed that Hatate was out of contract this February and the Hoops third target Yosuke Ideguchi was free from May, but Dan has quashed that with his tweet this morning.
These are all daily sports papers, they have their hits and misses when it comes to transfer reporting, but all are citing "several officials" and none are leaning on reports from UK outlets (as Japan's online football portals tend to do).https://t.co/82egPEVdmC
— Dan Orlowitz (@aishiterutokyo) December 7, 2021
But even at those quoted prices, it looks like Celtic could be onto a steal.
With the biggest outlay looking like it will be on Maeda’s loan with option to buy, €3.5m in total looks like it could be an absolute bargain for a guy that is just 24 years old, a full Japan international and has 23 goals to his name this season.
It seems to be a bit of shrewd business by Ange Postecoglou as he scours the Japan market for another gem like Kyogo and at these prices, surely even the Celtic board will not have an issue stumping up the cash to back the manager?