Where does Kundai Benyu stand at Celtic ahead of January?

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With the January transfer window starting a week tomorrow, just what is the status of forgotten Celtic man Kundai Benyu?

Brendan Rodgers signed the former Oldham Athletic man in the summer of 2017. To say he’s been a disappointment would be a bit of an understatement to say the least.

Fast forward two-and-a-half years and Benyu has only made four competitive Celtic appearances (Transfermarkt). The last of those came over two years ago in a Premiership match against Kilmarnock.

Since then, he was dropped and effectively forgotten about by the rest of us.

Benyu only last month returned from a loan spell with Swedish side Helsingborgs, where he seemed to strike up a relationship with Henrik Larsson. The Parkhead icon was the man who brought Benyu to Sweden, and was given 10 outings by him.

Larsson spoke about him back in August in the Scottish Sun. Benyu had just scored his first goal for the club at Falkenberg, and Henrik was full of praise for him.

“Very, very good”

“He was very, very good and showed why he is a Celtic player. He’s had some problems with fitness, but his movement and finish was superb.

“He’s confident on the ball and helps us out both in attack and defence so we are delighted that we’ve got him. I expect him to kick on from his first start and first goal.”

But Benyu never did get the chance to kick on. Two defeats later and Larsson was sacked. Olof Mellberg came in and Benyu didn’t feature in any of the club’s final 10 games of the season (Transfermarkt). Worse than that, Benyu wasn’t even a part of a single matchday squad.

So now he finds himself back at Parkhead having failed to make a noticeable impact in Sweden and well out of the picture here. However, with Celtic originally signing him on a four-year deal, that means he still has 18 months remaining on his current deal. We’ll do well to move him on permanently.

The most realistic bet would be another loan deal. Benyu, at 22 years of age, still needs regular football if he’s to continue his development. Whether that be in Britain or abroad, it doesn’t matter to us.

With the wide areas at Parkhead packed with quality, Benyu’s hopes of making it here appear dead. His goal now simply has to be regular football elsewhere in order to drum up interest.