Vakoun Bayo's brace for Toulouse is sheer irony for Celtic fans

By David Walton

August 30, 2020

Vakoun Bayo ironically netted a double for Toulouse on his competitive debut last night, and it wasn’t lost on the Celtic supporters.

Celtic boss Neil Lennon has had to bat away criticism of the fact that he didn’t field a single striker against Ferencvaros in the Champions League last week. The Hoops crashed out in a 2-1 defeat, with the manager claiming that both Albian Ajeti and Patryk Klimala weren’t fit to feature in Odsonne Edouard’s absence (Glasgow Times).

Bayo struggled at Celtic / (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Fast forward a few days and a Celtic-owned forward was indeed banging in the goals in Bayo. The big Ivorian notched a brace against Grenoble Foot in their opening Ligue 2 encounter. Toulouse went on to lose the game 5-3 as the loan star ultimately fell to defet.

However, the fact that Bayo is already making headlines for himself left a sense of irony that wasn’t missed by many. Here’s a look at some of the reaction to Bayo’s Ligue 2 debut:

https://twitter.com/dannybhoy2004/status/1299927488953548801

Not a great look, but it’s easy to get carried away

It’s easy to go a tad over the top after getting knocked out of the Champions League, particularly so early on in the qualifying stages. However, we can’t look at Bayo’s goals and think “we could’ve used him on Wednesday night”.

If Bayo would’ve been at the club last week, he wouldn’t have featured against Ferencvaros either. Lennon stated last night that he viewed Klimala as a squad player, and that it wasn’t the right time to launch him in last Wednesday (Scottish Sun). Why on earth would Bayo be any different given he’s even below Klimala in the pecking order?

Bayo certainly won’t have Celtic’s Champions League failure on his mind either. He won’t be sitting in Toulouse right now thinking that he’s missed a trick by not staying and potentially featuring against Ferencvaros.

Vakoun Bayo rises for a header (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The only thing that should be going through his mind is making an impression this season. If he can’t fire Toulouse to promotion this term, then 20-plus goals would certainly catch Lennon’s eye.

Yesterday’s defeat against Grenoble Foot was a nasty one for Toulouse. However, individually for Bayo, he couldn’t have gotten off to a better start.

As Celtic supporters, we should look at his brace last night as a source of promise and not regret.

In other news, Celtic reportedly want £40million for Odsonne Edouard due to a painful contractual clause.