Peter Grant admits ‘surprise’ with Brendan Rodgers’ call on Shin Yamada at Celtic

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Nothing summed up the mess of the summer transfer window more than the striker situation at Celtic.

From Kyogo Furuhashi leaving in January to Shin Yamada joining in the summer, and seemingly not being front and centre of Brendan Rodgers’ thoughts. 

Even though Celtic have a great record of nabbing players from Japan and developing them into something special.

The arrival of Yamada wasn’t exactly met with excitement, and Rodgers has further dampened the mood for the 25-year-old by hardly using him.

• READ MORE: Every Celtic signing of the 2025 summer transfer window graded

Shin Yamada’s situation at Celtic

Peter Grant admitted that he was ‘surprised’ that Yamada wasn’t included in Celtic’s Europa League squad, despite previously looking lively against Rangers.

Since then, the 25-year-old has hardly featured, even during Celtic’s League Cup quarter-final win against Partick Thistle last Sunday.

This was a Championship side, yet Yamada couldn’t even make the bench, and Grant told Go Radio that all of it is surprising.

“To be fair to Shin, in the game against Rangers when he came on, I thought he moved very well,” said Grant. “He never got the service. His movement was good in the box. 

“But from what I had seen in that particular game, you could see why people were saying, ‘he was bright and wanted to run in behind defenders.’

“I was quite surprised he wasn’t in the (Europa League) squad either. We don’t know how they train. We don’t know all these things, and Brendan has to make a selection because you can’t have all forwards, and no midfielders or defenders, so there are different reasons why it doesn’t happen. 

“I must admit, after the Rangers game, I was surprised that he wasn’t going to be part of the squad as well. He was a natural-moving striker.”

This can’t be another Maik Nawrocki

Albeit a defender, Maik Nawrocki was somebody who was hardly used, even though the Polish star signed during the summer, Rodgers returned to Glasgow.

Any time Nawrocki played, and he always seemed to come in for an injured player against Rangers, he looked and felt like he belonged in a Celtic shirt.

Yet, time and time again, he was sat on the bench not being used, or even the worst case scenario, he wasn’t even in the matchday squad.

Yamada can’t fall down this same hole, or you have to question who on earth is pushing the button to allow these signings to come in?!