Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers was backed by the board in the summer transfer window as they provided the funds for a host of new additions to the squad.
After Matt O’Riley was sold to Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion, the Hoops sanctioned a club-record £11m swoop for Augsburg central midfielder Arne Engels.
The board were also willing to splash out a fee of £8.5m, which could rise to £9.5m with add-ons, to sign striker Adam Idah from Norwich City, which means that he could become the second most expensive signing in Celtic’s history – behind Engels – if those add-ons are achieved.
After a return of nine goals in 19 games during a loan spell last season, the Ireland international has only scored five goals in 15 matches in all competitions for the club this term.
Rodgers, given the money spent on the 23-year-old forward, will be hoping that Idah can turn his form around and prove his worth in the months, and seasons, to come.
The Irishman must first, though, oust Kyogo Furuhashi from the starting XI and that has proven difficult, as the Japanese forward has been a terrific player for the club over the years.
Celtic's Kyogo Furuhashi masterclass
In the summer of 2021, former Celtic head coach Ange Postecoglou swooped to sign the striker from Vissel Kobe for a reported fee of £4.6m, just over half of the initial fee that was paid for Idah earlier this year.
The Japan international had scored 49 goals in 111 games for the J1 League outfit and the Scottish giants were hoping that he would bring that goal threat with him to Glasgow.
Kyogo did not disappoint. In the 2021/22 campaign, the forward racked up an impressive return of 20 goals and five assists in 33 appearances in all competitions.
His second season at Parkhead was even better, though, as the Japanese attacker produced a stunning 34 goals and five assists in 50 outings in all competitions.
The Celtic star’s impressive form throughout the 2022/23 campaign earned him the PFA Scotland Player of the Year award, which illustrated how highly he was valued by his peers.
Appearances
36
38
Goals
27
14
Minutes per goal
86
179
Big chances missed
16
24
Conversion rate
31%
14%
As you can see in the table above, his output did fall off from that season to the following term, but he still contributed with 14 league goals for the Hoops under Rodgers.
He has also scored six goals in 16 appearances in all competitions in the current campaign for the Scottish giants, one more than Idah has managed so far.
Overall, the £4.5m spent on Kyogo has been a bargain for Celtic, particularly when you consider that they once signed a flop in his position for even more money.
How much Celtic paid for Albian Ajeti
In the summer of 2020, one year before Kyogo’s arrival at Parkhead, Neil Lennon splashed out a whopping fee of £5m to sign number nine Albian Ajeti from West Ham United.
Sky Sports reported that the forward was willing to take a ‘significant’ pay cut from his £60k-per-week wages in London, and SalarySport claimed that he was initially on £16k-per-week with the Hoops in his first season. at the club.
At the time of his arrival, Lennon described Ajeti as a “tremendous” player and said “we hope he has a long and prosperous career with us” ahead of the 2020/21 campaign.
The Scottish giants spent £5m on the forward after he had failed to register a single goal or assist in 12 appearances for the Hammers in all competitions in his only season in England, which included nine matches in the Premier League.
Ajeti had, however, produced 21 goals and 11 assists in 43 outings in all competitions for Swiss giants Basel in the 2018/19 campaign, which may have been what Lennon was basing his assessment of the striker’s quality on.
Unfortunately, though, things did not work out well for the Switzerland international in Glasgow and he went on to be a big flop during his time with the Scottish giants.
Albian Ajeti's goalscoring record for Celtic
After arriving for a fee of £5m and being described as a ‘tremendous’ player by his manager, you could forgive supporters for expecting to see regular quality from Ajeti in the final third in the 2020/21 campaign.
Instead, the Swiss centre-forward rarely contributed at the top end of the pitch and ended the season with a return of just six goals and four assists in 30 appearances in all competitions.
He failed to find the back of the net in seven outings in Europe and scored all six of his goals in 20 matches in the Scottish Premiership, whilst he failed to create a single ‘big chance’ for his teammates in those games.
Postecoglou then arrived in the summer of 2021 and brought in Giorgos Giakoumakis and Kyogo to play ahead of Ajeti in the striker position, which immediately suggested that he was not a fan of the attacker.
That was further illustrated by the Swiss flop’s lack of minutes in the 2021/22 campaign, as the former West Ham man only played 17 times in all competitions and racked up 555 minutes of action.
Appearances
20
21
7
Starts
16
11
3
Goals
12
13
2
Assists
0
1
0
As you can see in the table above, Kyogo and Giakoumakis were both preferred ahead of Ajeti, whose weekly wage – per Sofascore – went up to £19k-per-week – taking his earnings to roughly £1.8m in his first two seasons at Parkhead.
The forward then spent the 2022/23 campaign on loan at Sturm Graz before being sold to Turkish side Gaziantep for a reported fee of just £500k, which means that the Hoops only got back £500k of the £6.8m they spent on him in transfer fees and wages.
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ByDan EmeryNov 21, 2024
Lennon got it all wrong with the Celtic flop, who rarely played or scored for the club before leaving for a tenth of the fee he was signed for, and it ended up being roughly £6.3m that went down the drain in the end.
