When Celtic’s Champions League game against Young Boys was over on Wednesday night, I was tempted to call my old friend Fraser Wishart, the head of PFA Scotland, to ask him if a new category was to be introduced at the Players Union’s annual awards ceremony.
I thought it could be called the Brass Neck of the Season trophy and I wanted to nominate Celtic’s Adam Idah to be the first recipient of the prize. Adam was actually the third last person to touch the ball that created Celtic’s thoroughly merited victory against the Swiss, but he ran off to take the acclaim of the crowd with no visible sign of a blush anywhere to be seen.
Meanwhile, the stadium announcer was testing the crowd’s credulity by announcing the Irishman’s name as the owner of the goal his own mother wouldn’t have credited him with scoring. Not that they cared, of course, but the fans will pay more attention to that particular role in Brendan Rodgers’ team now that Kyogo Furuhashi has gone to Rennes, and taken his eighty-five goals from 165 Celtic appearances with him. That’s one goal in every two games, a ratio Idah couldn’t begin to dream about on all known form. His goal-scoring average is more likely to be described as once in a while rather than able to be called anywhere near prolific, and that’s why the onus is now on Celtic to replace the Japanese icon with a suitable replacement before this transfer window closes next week.
The economics of the situation are laudable, ten million pounds for a now thirty year old player who cost much less than that three and a half years ago is not to be argued over. And Rodgers could be nothing less than pleased with the other business that’s been conducted in recent days.
In the space of the week gone by, Brendan has overseen the four million pound sale of a player, Alessandro Bernabei, who was a flop at Celtic Park but managed to be off-loaded for far more than was paid for him.
The manager also retained the services of a goalkeeper, Kasper Schmeichel, who’s an upgrade on the one before, Joe Hart, and has made a huge contribution to the club’s latest financial windfall from the Champions League, and a further ten million pounds will be payable if qualification for the last sixteen of the competition is attained.
What has been achieved so far has surely completed Rodgers’ rehabilitation in the eyes of the Celtic supporters who were divided over his return to the club. Confirmation of that being the case came when Brendan’s team looked to be temporarily flagging after their exhaustive efforts to find a goal against Young Boys on Wednesday night.
At that moment, the crowd rose in appreciative song that was the equivalent of a whiff of oxygen to the players whose energy levels rose sufficiently well to provide a grandstand finish to the match. In other words, the manager is presently doing a convincing impersonation of the man who falls out of a window and travels in an upward direction.
I had a caller on the radio two days before the game who said it was the fans’ “Job” to get behind a team, regardless of what was happening on the park. I disagree.
It is the fans’ right to be allowed a spontaneous expression of emotion, whether it is positive or negative, and so long as it is within the parameters of the law and the bounds of decency. I understand there was a leaflet drop outside Celtic Park before last weekend’s game against Kilmarnock urging supporters to be more vocal and lend a hand to the organised fans’ group, the Green Brigade, in terms of providing atmosphere inside the ground.
The appeal worked but, as ever, there will be renewed scrutiny of the club, on and off the park, this week. It is, as the manager put it lyrically when he got involved with dissenting supporters two weeks ago, all part of the dance at Celtic Park.
The sale of Kyogo Furuhashi to Rennes creates a vacancy in the striking department that Idah does not fill as yet, and the fans are watching with interest. I’ll take it all back next weekend if the Irishman scores against Aston Villa on Wednesday, but I suspect that away game will be more about Celtic’s defensive resilience than anything else. And the need to avoid a defeat of Borussia Dortmund proportions.
There is still a Premiership title to be confirmed on the domestic front and a Scottish Cup to be played for while being without Celtic’s most accomplished striker in recent years. A treble without a cause for concern, so long as due care and attention is paid to the business of acquiring an adequate replacement for Kyogo
The combination of Bernabei’s transfer fee and the Champions League money earned so far more than adequately covers Idah’s nine million pound fee from Norwich City. But Kyogo’s departure for France represents a considerable loss of threat up front for Celtic.
And there are some things even the healthiest of balance sheets can’t cover up, the lack of a potent threat when it’s most needed being one of them.