Yang Hyun-Jun has been one of few pleasant surprises from Celtic’s squad this season.
And, very fittingly, he wasn’t even supposed to be here.
Yang had agreed a deal with Birmingham on Deadline Day, travelling to the Midlands to complete a move worth £3 million.
Celtic had Manuel Benson lined up to replace him on loan, but after Yang’s move fell through, the dominoes didn’t fall… and the rest is history.
How good has Yang been this past month?
Yang Hyun-Jun sums up Celtic’s season
Yang’s performance in Saturday’s win over Motherwell was one of his best of a season which has easily been his strongest in Hoops.
Brendan Rodgers wouldn’t hesitate to use the South Korean in his first two seasons, but often had to take him out of the spotlight when his standards dropped too low.
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He hasn’t been immune to a poor performance this season, but in a season of desperately low attacking returns for the Hoops, Yang is the club’s joint-second-top goalscorer.
And he’s only here because the club were unable to manoeuvre the way they wanted in the summer. For the record, Benson didn’t register a single goal or assist at Swansea, making the whole episode a happy accident for Celtic.
Yang’s extraordinary goal against Rangers in January is likely to go down as one of Celtic’s forgotten great Glasgow Derby goals, given how that game ended.
In moments such as that, the 23-year-old shows signs of truly elite ability.
After the sale of Nicolas Kuhn last summer, few would’ve expected Yang to have been the one trusted to replace the German’s 36 goal contributions last season.
But very little about this season has gone to plan. Not many could’ve foreseen Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain turning out for Martin O’Neill’s Celtic back in June, either.
He’s far from perfect, but Yang’s overall contribution from this campaign will give the club’s scouts one less headache for an inevitable rebuild this summer – and that’s a favour they could do with.
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Yang Hyun-Jun on his near miss with Birmingham
Speaking after the Motherwell win, Yang admitted: “It’s true, I was very close to leaving – but it doesn’t matter any more.
“The transfer window is something every player needs to go through. Just because that move did not happen doesn’t mean I was sad about it.
“It just motivated me to practise and prepare even harder here. I think you can see that in the games and in my performances. I am very happy. All I want to do is focus on the team and trying to win every game.
“That’s what I have been doing and will continue to do. This is my third season here. The first two seasons were hard, maybe I didn’t play as much at times.”
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