Brendan Rodgers told one Celtic star would have been glad at January transfer window closing

Add as preferred source on Google

Celtic frustrated the supporters with the business they concluded during the January transfer window.

Building up to the winter window, there was a lot of noise around who could come in and leave, with the likes of Kieran Tierney and Kyogo Furuhashi hogging the headlines.

In the end, news broke that Tierney will return in the summer when his Arsenal contract expires and Kyogo departed for Rennes.

Brendan Rodgers shared that Celtic knew months in advance that Kyogo wanted to go, before his exit weeks before the window slammed shut.

From that sense, it provided the powers that be with time to bring in a replacement, but in the end, nobody arrived to fill Kyogo’s boots, even though Jota returned.

As you can understand, there was a sense of frustration in the air for most people associated with the club, apart from perhaps one individual.

READ MORE: John Collins rips into ‘average’ Celtic player after defeat to Hibernian

Celtic told Adam Idah was ‘counting down the seconds’ to the January transfer window closing

Of course, with Kyogo out of the door, the man who has benefited is Adam Idah because it means more starts and minutes for the Irishman.

Rather than being in and out of the XI, he is effectively battling himself for a starting spot and can only blame himself if he is on the bench.

That’s why Marvin Bartley told Premier Sports (23/02/25 at 12:10 pm) that Idah would have been the one glad that another striker didn’t come in last month and how he would have been ‘counting down the seconds’ on deadline day.

“It’s his chance to flourish,” said Bartley. “I think he would have been counting down the seconds to the transfer window closing and realising Celtic hadn’t brought in a striker.

“That’s what he wants to do. He wants to play week in and week out. As an attacking player, they are built on confidence and you always knew when Kyogo was there that Kyogo was coming back in, regardless of what Adam Idah did.

“Now he knows, if I can play well, especially domestically, then he will keep his place in the team. We have seen him score goals since Kyogo has gone and he is definitely good enough to do it. Another young player of potential. I think he will be a real, real asset to Celtic going on this season to next.”

Adam Idah’s stats since Kyogo Furuhashi left Celtic

That brace at Villa Park was a sign of what Idah is capable of, but then, Celtic looked far better with Daizen Maeda down the middle against Bayern Munich than the man himself.

Now, it feels like Celtic are better with Maeda up top overall, as was proven during the defeat at Hibernian over the weekend, as Idah’s stats post Kyogo leaving make for interesting reading.

Overall, things are picking up, but those games against Bayern didn’t work in his favour, nor did the clash against Hibs.

But, the difference now is that he knows he will return to the starting XI sooner rather than later.