Ko Itakura to Celtic officially put to bed after early summer Sky Sports report

By John McGinley

July 3, 2022

Neither Ko Itakura nor Taylor Harwood-Bellis will be joining Celtic this summer after moves to two clubs were announced over the last couple of days.

As we reported on Friday, Harwood-Bellis has completed his loan switch to Burnley to work with Vincent Kompany.

Last night, it was Itakura’s turn to make a move from Manchester City, with Borussia Monchengladbach announcing he signed a four-year permanent deal with the club.

Both players were linked with a move to Celtic way back in May when Sky Sports reported that the Bhoys were ‘monitoring’ the situation of both defenders.

It’s always been unclear how serious the Bhoys were about signing either, although updates on both were rampant throughout June.

Itakura had also been linked with a move to Celtic last summer when Ange Postecoglou first arrived at the club.

In honesty, if we had been really keen on his services, surely it would have been a doable deal at some point over the last 14 months. Unless the Japan international simply doesn’t fancy a Glasgow stay.

Celtic are still believed to be in the market for a central defender, despite the permanent acquisition of Cameron Carter-Vickers.

We know Christopher Jullien could move on after he travelled to Germany for signing talks last week. That would leave Postecoglou short in the position, especially after Liam Scales moved to Aberdeen on loan.

No firm targets have really emerged beyond the Itakura and Harwood-Bellis chat, so it’ll be interesting to see if there is now a change in reporting now that Jota and Alexandro Bernabei are both in the door.

In other news, “He’ll be a big hit in the Champions League”; Argentine manager raves about Alexandro Bernabei to Celtic.