Celtic told Daizen Maeda owes them nothing as transfer refusal questioned

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Daizen Maeda wanted to leave Celtic this summer.

After enjoying what was by far his best season at the club, winning Player of the Year from both Celtic and the SWFA, interest from elsewhere turned his head.

Brendan Rodgers saw another one of his key attackers, Nicolas Kuhn, move to Como at the beginning of the window for a huge profit.

He followed Kyogo Furuhashi out the door – the Japan striker now plays for Birmingham in the Championship – Celtic didn’t replace him when he completed a move to Rennes.

This put the Hoops in a difficult position with regard to Maeda, and the forward was unable to be moved on in the end. One pundit has questioned this decision.

Stephen McGinn says Celtic have no consistency in their transfer approach

Maeda’s bombshell revelation came as a shock to Celtic fans, but for Stephen McGinn, it was representative of how non-Scottish players view life at Celtic.

READ MORE: Chris Sutton’s brilliant reaction as Nottingham Forest to appoint Celtic hero Ange Postecoglou

For McGinn, Maeda’s achievements last season justify his desire to leave – and the club’s decision to limit the number of the sales is tough to agree with.

Speaking to Clyde Superscoreboard, he said: “I always think it’s a difficult one for the foreigners, because they don’t owe Celtic anything. It’s not like they were brought up like the Scottish boys where it’s life or death.

With 34 goals last year, he’s thinking at that stage that teams are going to pay good money, the agent has probably said to Celtic, ‘what fee would it take to go?’ There’s probably a team ready to match it.

“Why is Maeda’s blocked, but Kuhn’s wasn’t? Why is Yang’s blocked, but Kuhn’s wasn’t? There’s no consistency to it.”

After a poor start to the season, the focus is now even more on the man who scored 4 goals for the Hoops in last season’s Champions League.

Celtic were not ready to sell Daizen Maeda

Time will tell whether Maeda has played his best football for Celtic – but given how he has performed so far this campaign, hindsight could now indicate that the best opportunity to sell him has been missed.

Celtic released a statement on Saturday after intense fan unrest caused by transfer business. The club weren’t ready to sell Maeda this summer – they weren’t ready for the window at all.

Through good and bad form, the rapid winger has shown unique effort levels and remarkable energy. This is not a part of his game that drops off.

What fluctuates more is his impact in the final third – now that he is certain to be at Celtic until at least January, Maeda has an extremely important role to play until then.