Now that the season is over, we can look back on what made this one so successful for the club. Celtic’s transfer business has, quite rightly, been lauded and this season, it is no different.
The permanent additions of Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers were the two most important pieces of business to get done after their impressive displays in Ange Postecglou’s first season as Celtic manager.
But when the January window came along, the additions of Alistair Johnston, Tomoki Iwata, Hyeongyu Oh and Yuki Kobayashi bolstered the Celtic side for their assault on the domestic treble.
And whilst the first three players have impressed, Kobayashi has seen a decent start to his Celtic career take a turn for the worst towards the end of the season.
The young defender did impress in his first few appearances for Celtic. As a natural left-sided centre-back, he did show composure and brought balance to an area of the pitch that looked uncomfortable, at times, with Carl Starfelt.
He impressed on his debut against St Mirren in the 4-0 win at Celtic Park and then again at Rugby Park as we defeated Kilmarnock 4-1.
However, he did struggle badly against Rangers in the 3-0 defeat at Ibrox. Kobayashi spent the rest of the season on the bench only for Tomoki Iwata to be preferred in the centre of defence whilst Cameron Carter-Vickers recovered from a knee operation.
Kobayashi definitely has talent. We have seen it first-hand this season already. Trying to break that solid defensive pairing of Carter-Vickers and Starfelt will be a challenge for any defender. And at just 22-years-old, he still has plenty of time to develop and learn how to become a good Celtic defender.
With a full preseason under his belt this summer and with a new manager coming in, Kobayashi has the opportunity to reset and go again. And if he shows more of what he did against Kilmarnock and St Mirren, there is no reason he can’t build on that a improve in the coming season.
In other news; Johan Mjallby on why key Celtic backroom figure should be allowed to join Spurs if he wants to
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