Celtic loanee Bayo dropped by Toulouse; watches team labour to draw

By Euan Davidson

December 8, 2020

Celtic’s on-loan forward Vakoun Issouf Bayo was dropped for Toulouse’s Ligue 2 clash with Guingamp on Saturday.

Bayo watched most of the game from the bench as his temporary team laboured to a 2-2 draw at home. Goals from Rhys Healey and Janis Atiste sealed a point for Les Violets (Football 365).

Bayo has struggled so far during his southern French sojourn. Just last week, our own David Walton reported on comments made in the French press about the stuttering Ivorian striker. Toulouse fan site Les Violets awarded Bayo a 2/10 rating from their win against AS Nancy.

It seems that the on-loan striker has run out of luck over the last two seasons, and is now currently on a nine-game horror run without a goal.

Bought by Celtic in 2019 for €2.23m (Transfermarkt), Bayo has scored a paltry four goals in two years. He hasn’t hit any kind of form since his last season with Dunajska Streda in the Slovakian top tier, during which time he scored 10 goals in 16 league appearances.

Bayo, Frimpong and Elhamed enjoy excellent Celtic merchandise / (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group via Getty Images)

What’s gone wrong for Bayo?

Bayo never looked like the kind of player who would’ve fit in at Celtic. As something of a target man, the Ivorian only ever saw action as a makeshift Plan B.

In the Europa League for Celtic, he was given a 23 minute cameo in a loss to Cluj, after being mystifyingly sent-off against Rennes (BBC) in an appearance where he averaged one yellow card per minute on the pitch.

During one of his rare league appearances, a 3-1 win for Celtic against Heart of Midlothian, he had two of his efforts given as own goals (BBC). If you believe in luck, it’s clear that Bayo has precisely none of it.

At Toulouse, Bayo has seen a decent amount of game time. However, just as at Celtic, he’s found goalscoring opportunities hard to come by. Although Toulouse have an option to buy the striker permanently (Sun), it seems unlikely that the Bhoys will see a return on their investment.

It’s another disappointing bit of business for Celtic over the last two years. Boli Bolingoli was signed for £3m in 2019 (BBC) but is now on loan at İstanbul Başakşehir, while Maryan Shved has had a similarly torried time out on loan.