Here are seven of the worst post-Celtic transfer moves in recent memory amid reports Kyogo is bound to leave Rennes in the summer.
Kyogo was a hero for Celtic and plundered more than a century of goals for the Hoops between 2021 and the start of 2025.
He moved to Rennes for £10m in the January transfer window, but days later the manager who signed him, Jorge Sampaoli, was sacked and replaced with Habib Beye.
Beye is clearly not a fan of Kyogo and the Japanese striker has played just six times for his new club without scoring his debut goal.
Now reports coming out of France say Kyogo will be let go by Rennes this summer. He has cost Rennes a staggering £1.6m per game.
Shunsuke Nakamura > Espanyol (2009)
In the summer of 2009, Shunsuke Nakamura left Celtic at the end of his contract after four years to sign for La Liga outfit Espanyol.
Nakamura was incredibly successful at the Hoops as he won six major domestic honours, which included three SPL titles.
But at Espanyol, it was an unmitigated disaster for the Japanese star. He mostly made appearances off the bench and reportedly struggled to adapt to life in Spain.
He almost made a move to Middlesbrough in January 2010 which would have reunited him with Gordon Strachan, but it did not materialise.
Espanyol transfer listed Nakamura and he soon rejoined Yokohama F. Marinos. He made just 15 appearances for Espanyol and failed to score.
Gary Hooper > Norwich City (2013)
Gary Hooper scored 82 goals in 138 games for Celtic before earning a £5m switch to Premier League side Norwich City in July 2013.
He started well at Carrow Road having netted four goals in his first seven starts. But he finished the season with just six Premier League goals in 32 matches. Moreover, Norwich were relegated.
In the Championship the following campaign, Hooper netted 12 goals in 30 appearances as Norwich bounced back into the Premier League at the first time of asking.
He would only make two appearances for Norwich in 2015/16 before making a loan switch to Sheffield Wednesday in the October.
Georgios Samaras > West Bromwich Albion (2014)
After a six-and-a-half year stint at Celtic where he scored 74 goals in 249 appearances, Georgios Samaras was made a free agent after being told by the club they would not renew his deal.
As per BBC Sport, Samaras said: “It was not the manager’s decision. It was people from on high. I never had an offer from the club. I never had an offer from Peter Lawwell.”
Premier League side West Bromwich Albion decided to sign the Greek international on a two-year contract – but it turned out horribly wrong.
Manager Alan Irvine was clearly not a fan of Samaras because not once did he start the forward. In the end, Samaras made just eight substitute appearances before leaving for Al-Hilal in February 2015.
Kieran Tierney > Arsenal (2019)
There’s no doubt this transfer was clearly NOT a disaster for Celtic given they received a whopping £25m from Arsenal.
But Kieran Tierney’s time in North London, after all the initial hype, was a severe let-down.
Tierney had just won his third domestic Treble in a row with Celtic and was leaving on a magnificent high for the Premier League giants managed by Unai Emery.
His first season was disrupted by a dislocated shoulder and then the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Premier League season resuming in the summer of 2020.
Tierney found success by starting in both the 2020 FA Cup final and Community Shield wins against Chelsea and Liverpool respectively.
He was then a regular during the 2020/21 season, but things started to go downhill the following campaign due to injuries and the emergence of Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta preferred Zinchenko as the team’s left-back and it meant Tierney started just six Premier League games across 2022/23.
He moved to Real Sociedad on loan for the 2023/24 season and after a decent start, two hamstring injuries scuppered the rest of the campaign.
A serious injury at Euro 2024 with Scotland ruled Tierney out for a large chunk of the current 2024/25 season, and as of today, he’s only started three times for Arsenal.
Tierney will head back to Celtic this summer on a free transfer.
Odsonne Edouard > Crystal Palace (2021)
Odsonne Edouard is one of Celtic’s most expensive transfer sales of all-time having moved to Crystal Palace in August 2021 for £14m.
Edouard was a favourite amongst Celtic fans and his goals to games ratio in the Scottish Premiership was fantastic (0.57 goals per match), better than Kyogo Furuhashi and Leigh Griffiths.
The Frenchman made his switch to London on transfer deadline day and scored a double on his debut. But since then, he has really struggled to adapt to the high standards of the Premier League.
Edouard has scored just 18 goals in England’s top-flight in almost four years. He hasn’t netted at all this season for either Palace or Leicester City, who he moved to on loan.
Jota > Al-Ittihad (2023)
This is easily the best (or worst) example of the lot. Jota was a sensational player for Celtic across the dominant Ange Postecolgou era and left in 2023 for a joint record £25m.
His destination was Saudi Arabia with Al-Ittihad and he teamed up with the likes of Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante at the free-spending club.
Sadly, it was a horrific experience for the Portuguese winger. And the biggest reason for that was being left out of Al-Ittihad’s league squad for the season by manager Nuno Espirito Santo.
Saudi Pro League rules do not allow more than eight foreign players to be included in a club’s domestic squad.
As such, Jota was restricted to playing in the AFC Champions League, the Arab Club Champions Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup and the Saudi Super Cup.
Jota is now back at Celtic after a stint with French side Rennes.
David Turnbull > Cardiff City
Lastly, it’s David Turnbull’s £2m transfer from Celtic to Cardiff City in February 2024. He signed a contract at the Welsh club until 2027.
Turnbull made 17 appearances in the latter half of last season but failed to score his first goal. That finally came in the 2024/25 campaign against Blackburn Rovers.
The former Motherwell midfielder played 19 EFL Championship games this season and could only muster up that one goal against Rovers.
To make matters worse, Cardiff were relegated to EFL League One having finished rock bottom in the table.
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