Chris Sutton is the most vocal of those criticising Daizen Maeda’s £10 million move to Ipswich Town.
His latest column has described the club’s decision to sell the forward at that fee as “baffling” and “utterly incredible”.
This is a surprisingly naïve take from a pundit who covers Celtic so comprehensively. That the sale or fee would surprise any tuned-in observer is strange.
But more important than Sutton’s shock at the fee is that his stance is symptomatic of Celtic’s transfer dealings in 2026, and completely missing the point.
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The fee of Celtic’s Daizen Maeda sale isn’t the problem
A 28-year-old with one year left on his contract, playing at Scottish Premiership level, is never commanding a £20 million fee in a million years.
We all know how excellent a player Maeda is, but no level of output can change the realities of the football market.
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But why do fans care so much about the fee in the first place?
In three consecutive transfer windows between 2024 and 2025, Celtic sold Matt O’Riley, Kyogo Furuahshi and Nicolas Kuhn for a combined fee of £56 million.
None of those players were adequately replaced.
More money in the bank for Celtic means nothing in real terms. The club’s financial model ensures that they are profitable every year. If that helps you sleep at night, great.
But losing sleep over the extent of said profit is missing the point completely. Celtic could have a net spend of £50 million this summer without breaching any regulations, despite the club’s public insistence otherwise.
Not only do they self-harm with a risk-averse approach to spending, but they also lack the infrastructure to ensure that they spend well.
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No director of football (or adjacent figure). No head of recruitment. A football department stretched way too thin to be remotely competitive with our European counterparts.
Until these wider issues change, the exact figure behind each transaction is irrelevant. Celtic will continue to restrict their potential with their ultra-focus on profitability.
Perhaps if we had a recruitment set-up which was fit for a club of our resources, losing our best players wouldn’t strike such fear into fans.
Ironically, it’s said fear which causes fans to ask the club why they aren’t making more money from transactions like Maeda.
It’s that exact focus on making money which has us where we are.
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