Daizen Maeda

Scott Burns

Daizen Maeda is poised for a January exit as Celtic brace themselves for a bidding war.



The Scottish champions have turned down several approaches for the Japan international in the last couple of windows.



Maeda vented his own frustration after the last window closed by lifting the lid to the Japanese media, telling them he had wanted to leave but the club had been unwilling to sell because they didn’t have a replacement lined up.


Brentford were keen and there was also major Bundesliga interest in the summer.




Sources close to the Japanese player have confirmed there is still strong interest in the 28-year-old going into the new year and he could finally leave.

Celtic are aware of that and their recruitment team has already started to look at attacking options and possible replacements for January.


Rodgers also had to get Maeda back on-side after his transfer snub. The player had even emptied his locker because he was pushing for a late deal to be done last time around.

Maeda, speaking to the Japanese press back in September, admitted: “I received an offer.

“I had been telling the club that I wanted to take the next step, but Celtic hadn’t been able to strengthen their squad properly, so in the end they told me they couldn’t let me go.


Personally, I had agreed, so I wanted to take on the challenge.

“The national team also delayed my joining, and I asked Celtic until the last day, but it didn’t happen.”



Rodgers had to hold talks with Maeda on his return from international duty to keep him back on track.

The attacker has failed to hit the impressive heights he did last season but still remains one of their top assets.

Maeda, who will be heading to the World Cup this summer with Japan, moved to Celtic in 2022 from Yokohama F. Marinos.

 

Not really a surprise. I think it is all but a done deal that Maeda will be gone at some point in January. Obviously he has been a huge part of our success the past few seasons and it will be sad to see him move on. Hopefully he can finish his time with us on a high over the next couple of months. But yes it does look like the only questions are where he will go and how much we will get for him. He is under contract until the summer of 2027 so we should be able to still get a good fee for him. Considering we only paid 1.8m euro for him a substantial profit is likely.

 

Evem more money to sit gathering interest in the bank for our money loving tories

 

Well he's definitely given the club sufficient notice for them to have identified a suitable replacement like - just they did for Kyogo

 

Osmand got injured though

 

His time is up, unfortunately. He’s made a big contribution overall, but he’s clearly not happy.

 

Tbf, he's not said anything since September..

Not that I think his situation has changed but we may need to keep him until the Summer, we're so short of attacking threat.

 

Barring the purple patch he had last season from January to end of the season I think he’s a pretty average player, he does pop up with goals and his pressing is very decent but some a the chances he misses , bad crosses from good areas that go into the stands far outweigh the good for me, if we got anywhere near the money involved then I’d be ecstatic, a fully fit jota is twice the player

 

It’s so obvious now, like even just how he turned up for the Rangers game, hair slicked back, he charged about like the Daizen of old where he has looked like a half baked version for nearly every other game.

 

No ideal..

Would push to keep him til the summer now with a fee or club agreed..

Or punt and help towards our January transfer kitty we so badly need