Former Celtic full-back to miss out on Paradise Return

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The Celtic Star

·21 January 2025

Former Celtic full-back to miss out on Paradise Return

Former Celtic signing Saidy Janko won’t get the chance to play against his former club in the Champions League match at Paradise tomorrow evening…

Saidy Janko is challenged by Jack Grealish during the UEFA Champions League match between Manchester City and BSC Young Boys at Etihad Stadium on November 07, 2023. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

The BSC Young Boys right-back – who had a spell in Glasgow a good few years back – is currently on the books at the Swiss Super League club and would no doubt have loved the opportunity to come back and play a Champions League match under the famous Parkhead lights.

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Saidy Janko of Celtic vies with Marc Albrighton of Leicester City during the Pre Seanon Friendly match between Cetlic and Leicester City at Celtic Park on July 23, 2016. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Janko’s back injury keeps him sidelined

However, it now looks like Janko won’t have that pleasure as he has been ruled out through successive injuries which have thwarted his season so far. The 29-year-old ex-Celt has been suffering from a thigh injury but now his club have confirmed that he also has another issue in relation to his back which is unfortunate. His club issued the following update, via The National: “After his thigh injury, Saidy Janko was on track. Now he has back problems, which will extend his rehabilitation time.”

New Celtic signing Saidy Janko arrives with Celtic assistant manager John Collins for the pre-season friendly match between Celtic and De Bosh on July 1, 2015 at St Mirren stadium in Paisley. (Photo by Jeff Holmes/Getty Images)

A Ronny Deila signing in summer 2015

The former Manchester United full-back joined Celtic under Norwegian coach, Ronny Deila, way back in 2015. He was one of a number of signings around that time period in the club’s history that failed to make the grade and meet the expectations of the supporters. Although arriving with a decent reputation, he never managed to showcase his skills in Glasgow’s East End and was shipped out when Brendan Rodgers came to the club during his first spell.

Saidy Janko of Celtic during the International Champions Cup series match between Barcelona and Celtic at Aviva Stadium on July 30, 2016 in Dublin, Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

Janko went on to have spells with Barnsley, St Etienne, Real Valladolid, VfL Bochum, Nottingham Forest, Porto and now BSC Young Boys in his career and has been quite nomadic in this respect.

It speaks in itself to a poor recruitment policy at Celtic Park for some years, which has been fraught with tensions between the manager, supporters and Board of Directors. Hopefully that is consigned to the past now and we can make strides in becoming progressively better under Brendan Rodgers this time around.

Paul Gillespie

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