Gordon Dalziel shuts down Celtic doubts over transfer call with Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate message

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Brendan Rodgers has made his first big and risky call of Celtic’s transfer window.

There has been a lot going on in recent weeks, with the 2025 summer transfer window in full flow and Celtic adding to their squad.

One of the key areas, and perhaps the most important position on the pitch that needed strengthening once the 2024/25 season concluded, was centre-back.

Just as the Celtic players return for pre-season, the fans have their answer as to how Rodgers is going to shape up at the heart of the club’s defence.

Cameron Carter-Vickers, Auston Trusty and Liam Scales are already in the building, and you can now add new boy, Hayato Inamura, to that list as well.

• READ MORE: All you need to know about Hayato Inamura, the latest Celtic arrival from Japan

Celtic sign Hayato Inamura from Japan

The Celtic fans wanted a more proven star, not a player from outside of Europe, and somebody who has only been in professional football for a few years.

But everyone knows, these are the type of signings the club make, and will continue to make, as Gordon Dalziel wanted to defend Celtic’s transfer call.

Speaking to Clyde 1 Superscoreboard, Dalziel highlighted the ‘success’ of Celtic’s PFA Player of the Year, Daizen Maeda, as well as Reo Hatate and Kyogo Furuhashi, as to why this process should be trusted.

“They have had great success going down this road,” said Dalziel. “Obviously, they will look at Brendan Rodgers as a coach as well to bring him on at that age. His development.

“Yes, 23 is still particularly young. You still have a lot of football ahead of you. They have been successful in this avenue. It will be interesting to see what he brings. Like everybody else, he is unknown to me. I don’t know anything about him.

“But so were guys like Maeda, Hatate and Kyogo. And look at the success they had.”

Celtic’s successful Japanese players

This isn’t anything against Inamura, it’s just that Celtic fans feel the centre-back spot is a problem area, and an unknown gem with no European pedigree isn’t going to fix it.

But the fact of the matter is, these types of players, with very little hype around them, have done wonders for the club before.

Several of them have come from Japan and are regarded as Celtic greats.

• Shunsuke Nakamura
• Trophies: 6

• Reo Hatate
• Trophies – 8

• Daizen Maeda
• Trophies – 8

• Kyogo Furuhashi
• Trophies – 9