Celtic selling Kyogo sends a clear signal and it's not a good one so here's exactly why I don't get it – Chris Sutton
Selling Kyogo Furuhashi feels like Celtic have just put their hands up and admitted there’s a ceiling on their Champions League ambitions.
That the end of the road has been reached in Europe this term, whilst an unnecessary risk has been taken at home. If you wanted to be ultra-critical, you could even say it’s money over magic. Celtic deserve big congratulations for qualifying into the Champions League play-off stages. Brendan Rodgers and the players have really delivered at the top table and it’s been brilliant to see after years of underachievement at the top level.
But they can aim for more. And the title isn’t won either. I get annoyed when people say it is all over. It’s why I just don’t get this Kyogo sale. There is a right time and a wrong time to leave.
Rodgers said Kyogo wanted to go. I get that. Fair enough, sell him in the summer, but why now in the midst of a campaign where more can be achieved? After three-and-a-half years, he clearly wanted a new challenge, but that’s not his call to make. Not when under contract. Yes you can go, but when we decide. Not you.
I’m not in the dressing room, but Kyogo doesn’t seem like a bad egg, or the sort to cause unrest. Callum McGregor said recently he was still a happy wee guy. Rodgers said this issue has been on the go for a couple of months, but Kyogo was still delivering in the past fortnight with big goals at Ross County a fortnight ago and being dangerous against Young Boys, so it’s not like the tools had been packed away.
The manager also says he fits in perfectly to how the team wants to play, so surely just tell him he can go in the summer. Not at a time when there is more to aim for. It’s as if Celtic have reached the play-offs for the Champions League and now think: That’ll do. I always think about ambition, the what if?
It’ll be extremely tough in the play-off, but you stand a far-better chance of making another step if you have your best players and Kyogo was the best striker by a stretch. Celtic now go to Villa Park for a Battle of Britain without their main man and Daizen Maeda suspended. That’s odd timing.
The club is brilliantly run upstairs and I understand there’s a business decision involved, some fans and pundits saying that it’s a good deal, but I don’t see it that way at all. You can tell me that £10million is a good fee for a 30-year-old all you like, but that’s nothing in the modern game for a game-changer and nothing when it comes to the riches which are being dragged in the door from Europe.
And, incidentally, 30 is not old. Look at Mo Salah down the road at Liverpool and it’s not as if Celtic are like Rangers and need the money. Why not give it your best shot to reach the next stage. Like I said, it’s like a hands-up.
Put it this way, I couldn’t imagine Henrik Larsson being sold midway through our run to Seville. Kyogo’s an enormous loss and Celtic must have a top-class replacement lined-up. You couldn’t possibly sell the Asian now otherwise. If they get someone as good or even better, I’ll be the first to hold my own hands up.
It might be that the new boy turns out to be even better than Kyogo in the long run, but some boys need time to bed in and you are running a risk. Yes Celtic are massive odds-on in the title race, but no-one can ever take things for granted. All it takes is a couple of defeats to start a wobble.
In Dingwall a fortnight ago, Celtic would have dropped points had Kyogo not come up with the goods. I’ve not having a go at Adam Idah, but he just doesn’t have the same abilities at the moment to alter matches, no matter his part in the late moment against Young Boys.
Maeda can’t play the central role like Kyogo. He doesn’t have the same touch or the ability to play around corners with his back to goal. A quality centre-forward must be found because Jota is not for like-for-like. Kieran Tierney will also please the fans, but he’s not a striker either.
Jota is fascinating. He’s barely played since leaving Celtic. If people expect the same Jota to come back, then great. but I have my doubts.
How hungry is he? He had that hunger the first time around, but he needs to prove himself again. Three starts for Rennes this term. He’ll need time. And you need guys ready to crack on without a bedding-in period.
For me, it just sends out the wrong signal to sell Kyogo. It suggests Celtic feel that the season’s targets have already been accomplished by reaching the play-off stages and thinking the title is already in the bag with the League Cup is already won.
Don’t get me wrong, if you had said that to Celtic fans at the beginning of the season that they’d win another title and get beyond the league phase in Europe, they’d have been delighted. But talk about pricking the balloon straight after the qualification was secured.
Celtic are in a great position at the moment at home and the expectation is to try and push forward. Finding an upgrade on Kyogo would most-certainly represent pushing on, but, like I said, it’s going to take a helluva player to do it and you are also asking a lot for him to sparkle instantly. However, the facts are he’ll have to because Kyogo has been the brightest attacking light, arguably, since Henrik.
