Stephen McGowan’s grim summer assessment of three Celtic stars | OneFootball

Renowned journalist Stephen McGowan revealed that Celtic were tracking Japanese defender Hayato Inamura. Brendan Rodgers’ side swooped to sign Kieran Tierney on a pre-contract, with the 28-year-old arriving on a five year deal. However, the club will require to sign a backup left-back with Greg Taylor expected to depart.

The Scottish Champions have been busy in the opening stages of the summer transfer window, having completed the signing of Tierney from Arsenal and progressing with deals to sign Callum Osmond, Ross Doohan and Benjamin Nygren. Now, as reported by McGowan in the Herald, Celtic are after the 23-year-old who plays at both left back and left centre back.

The report from McGowan states that Celtic are keen on returning to the J-League for some of their brightest talents, having raided Japan for a number of players during Ange Postecoglou’s tenure at the club. Despite the report in the Herald from McGowan providing an update on a potential arrival, the senior sports journalist paints a fairly bleak image about the future of a key Celtic trio.

Japanese midfielder Reo Hatate is said to be keen to test himself in a European Top Five league, after three and a half years at Celtic. The maverick central midfielder has been excellent in the final third for Celtic and provides a unique blend of work rate and quality.

There is an argument that, with the World Cup looming, the player may fancy his chances at another club but it does appear to be a risk given that he is already in the manager’s thinking.

Cameron Carter-Vickers has interest from the English Premier League, with Sunderland and Leeds having been credited with an interest in the USA Internationalist.

The thrust of Celtic’s transfer interest has focused on wide players, which may support the suggestion that Nicolas Kühn could be set for a summer exit. The German winger has been linked with a £15m move to RB Leipzig but with four years remaining on his deal, this seems low.

The three players have been key figures in Celtic success over the last few years. Their quality is in undoubted but that is the nature of football. You would hope that Celtic can confidently replace quality with quality; albeit, too many changes would jeopardise the club’s chances at making headways in Europe.