Celtic selling players never the issue – Failing to replace them is the problem

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The Celtic Star

·25 marzo 2026

Celtic selling players never the issue – Failing to replace them is the problem

Recently myself and others have highlighted how Celtic have never recovered after the departures of Kyogo, Adam Idah and Nicolas Kuhn…

Celtic’s Nicolas Kuhn (middle)celebrates his goal with Matt O’Riley and Kyogo Furuhashi during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic and Kilmarnock at Celtic Park on August 4, 2024. (Photo by Steve Welsh/Getty Images)

When they left the club a huge amount of goals left with them, and as we have seen this season, nobody has stepped into their shoes to replace their goalscoring exploits.

OneFootball Video

I have noticed in the comments that some people have stated that since leaving Celtic these three players form has dropped dramatically, and the goals have dried up. Some have suggested Celtic therefore made a good call in cashing in on them, while their stock was still relatively high.

They are totally correct, but they are also totally missing the point. Myself and others aren’t bemoaning the fact that we sold these players, we are dismayed that the club have failed to replace them with players anywhere near their standard.

Since the dreaded ‘covid season’ where we lost our chance of winning ten in a row, I have been committed to the mantra that if a player wants to go, then let them leave. That season we held on to the likes of Odsonne Édouard, Kris Ajer and Ryan Christie when their minds were already fixated on their future careers in the English Premier League. It was a mistake then and I’m glad it looks like it’s generally a mistake we have learned from.

Adam Idah celebrates scoring at Ibrox to level the score at 1-1. theRangers v Celtic, 4 May 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

People dismiss Adam Idah and claim he wasn’t good enough for Celtic. Whether they are right or wrong, last season he scored 20 goals in a campaign where he spent over half the season as our number two striker. All our strikers combined this season haven’t scored 20 goals. Whether you liked him or not, he was clearly better than what we have now,no matter how his time at Swansea is working out.

Kyogo signs for Rennes. Photo Rennes FC

We had Kyogo, who’s performances during the latter part of his Celtic career were certainly in decline. The worst version of Kyogo is still light years ahead of the absolute garbage we currently have at our disposal. He wanted to go so there was no point in keeping him, the same way we were right to let Kuhn leave for a better life and better wage packet in Como.

Nicolas Kuhn, Como FC

The problem is however that we made somewhere around £30m from these transfers. That’s good business and a nice pot of money available to go out and buy three good replacements. Instead we ended up with Iheanacho on a free. We ended up with Japanese striker Shin Yamada, clearly unwanted by then manager Brendan Rodgers, at the cost of £1.5m. A player who was struggling for goals, and who only ever had one productive goalscoring season his whole career. Someone who went on loan recently to a club currently occupying the bottom spot of the German second division and was quickly found out to be what he is. An absolute dud.

Shin Yamada. Hearts v Celtic, 26 October 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

We spent good money trying to replace Kuhn, somewhere between £4-5m. Unfortunately we ended up having our eye wiped by Royal Antwerp who took our cash and laughed as they sent us Michel-Ange Balikwisha, who has been absolutely anonymous this season. I would be here all day if I listed all the disastrous transfers this season, with some of the players brought in to revitalise our title charge in January even outdoing some of our summer signings in the utterly useless category.

Michel-Ange Balikwisha of Celtic during the UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase MD3 match between Celtic FC and SK Sturm Graz at Celtic Park on October 23, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

So just to clear things up, the problem was never that we sold the like of Kyogo, Idah and Kuhn. The problem was we never replaced them with players of similar quality. In fact it’s worse than that, we replaced them with players who should have never been granted the honour of wearing the famous green and white hoops.

It’s hard to see where the goals are going to come from as we head into the most important part of the season. It says it all when we are pining all our hopes on a youngster returning from injury who’s only starting out on his journey in senior football.

We all know where the blame lies here. The transfer calamities, the crazy decision to hire Wilfried Nancy mid-season, the falling out with supporter groups and fan media. We can not let the same people who brought this disastrous season upon us to be the ones tasked with remedying it going forward. They have had multiple chances and have failed spectacularly. Celtic needs change, and we need it as soon as possible.

Conall McGinty

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