“What a mess the club has made of the summer,” Chris Sutton

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The Celtic Star

·7 septembre 2025

“What a mess the club has made of the summer,” Chris Sutton

Chris Sutton has insisted that Celtic’s transfer strategy has fallen apart following the club’s decision to block Daizen Maeda from leaving during the summer window…

Daizen Maeda theRangers v Celtic, 31 August 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

The 27 year-old forward revealed his desire to depart Celtic in order to progress to the next stage of his career in an interview with local Japanese media last week. Despite holding discussions with Celtic and an unnamed Bundesliga club right up to deadline day, the transfer ultimately failed to materialise.

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Now, in his weekly column in the Daily Record, Sutton has slammed Celtic’s handling of the summer transfer window which was symbolised by the Maeda debacle.

Sutton said: “The entire episode just underlines what a mess the club has made of the summer. It is another admission of the collective failure of the recruitment policy – the entire system has collapsed. Throughout the summer we were told if a player wants to go then they have to be allowed to leave. That was the case with Kyogo, the same with Nicolas Kuhn.”

Nicolas Kühn of Celtic celebrates after scoring his team’s second goal during the SPL | Premier League match between Dundee United FC and Celtic FC at Tannadice Park on April 26, 2025 . (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The former Celtic striker added: “Eventually we’ll probably hear the same about Adam Idah. Their heads were turned so they had to go. The message from Celtic was it’s unrealistic to keep a player who has had their head turned and expect the same level of performance and commitment.

“But that rule doesn’t apply to Maeda apparently. Listen, if there is one player who you wouldn’t question when it comes to commitment, even in these circumstances, it’s Daizen Maeda.”

“I imagine he’ll keep his head down and will get on with it,” the former Celtic striker outlined. “That’s not the point though. The issue is Celtic not having the structure in place to deal with these eventualities.”

Daizen Maeda poses with his Scottish Premiership winners medal after the season s final league match against St. Mirren on May 17, 2025. Photo IMAGO

“They should have prepared for it. Celtic sign players with the understanding it’s about developing and selling them on when the time comes. They can’t even promise that now.”

Had Celtic done their job in the summer and signed adequate replacements for Kuhn, Kyogo, Idah and Maeda then Daizen could have got his move while Celtic would have probably made enough from his sale to fund the four replacements, while adding the £17m Kuhn money to the bottom line.

When you look at it that way then the nonsense in that insulting 9pm Saturday night statement about UEFA expenditure caps gets blown out the water. What a mess they’ve made of things this summer, right enough.

Conor Spence

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