Celtic fans will be keen to forget all about the January transfer window, which ended up being an underwhelming endeavour, all told.
In the end, Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah were the only arrivals to pitch up at Parkhead before the deadline.
Yesterday, both combined well as the former managed to salvage a 1-1 draw away to Aberdeen at Pittodrie; however, the Bhoys have now seen their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership cut to three points.
Focusing on the subject of recruitment, Celtic were mentioned in connection with several other potential targets last month that didn’t end up coming to fruition.
Sydney van Hooijdonk is a familiar name to many, given that reports linking the Dutchman to Brendan Rodgers’ side refused to subside throughout the duration of the window.
Nevertheless, despite murmurings that the 23-year-old could’ve ended up in Glasgow by the close of play, Norwich City proved to be his eventual destination in the dying embers of market activity.
Of course, Canaries loanee Idah ended up becoming the man to answer Rodgers’ call for some variety in the final third, completing an interesting sequence of events.
Anthony Joseph explains why Celtic didn’t sign Van Hooijdonk
Speaking to The Celtic Exchange, Sky Sports reporter Anthony Joseph has given some insight into why Celtic didn’t look to pursue a move for Van Hooijdonk before his switch to Norwich City.
Joseph stated: “The circumstances of that were a bit funny in terms of how Sydney van Hooijdonk, who has been quoted in Italy, said that they were waiting for Celtic to come in. They [Bologna] delayed approaches from other clubs, when Bologna were getting approaches from other clubs.
“But Celtic made no contact. My understanding is Celtic didn’t come in with any approach for Sydney van Hooijdonk in the January window.
“Celtic will have their reasons for not going in for him. The interest might just have cooled later on. I don’t know that for sure but that seems to be the case.”
Celtic’s non-pursuit of Sydney van Hooijdonk is now academic
Breda-born Van Hooijdonk has an impressive CV factoring in his age, registering 92 senior club goals in 198 appearances [Transfermarkt].
Despite this, Celtic opted to look elsewhere and only the club will know their motivations behind that decision.
Republic of Ireland forward Idah has since come in, and it has to be said that he offered an alternative dimension away from Aberdeen, obtaining a Sofascore match rating of 7.2/10 for his display.
The 22-year-old won all of his aerial duels and completed eight out of his 12 attempted passes, with one resulting in an assist.
Moving forward, Celtic fans will be keen to see more of the same from Idah as their side look to claim a league-and-cup double.
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