Eyebrows were raised when Kwon Hyeok-kyu left Celtic to join Nantes.
The midfielder was brought to Glasgow from Korean second division side Busan I’Park in 2023, in Brendan Rodgers’ first summer after returning.
He appeared in James Forrest’s testimonial against Athletic Bilbao and… struggled. He did not play a competitive minute for Celtic.
Kwon joined St Mirren on loan in January 2024, performing well for the Buddies before heading on loan to Hibs for the 2024-25. He made less of an impact at Easter Road.
He regardless made the move to Ligue 1 at the beginning of this season, but he’s back on the market again.
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Ex-Celtic man Kwon Hyeok-kyu’s January move collapses
Kwon had appeared in twelve Ligue 1 games for Nantes games under Luis Castro, starting nine of them.
However, Castro was sacked with the club flirting with relegation. He was replaced by ex-Morrocco defender Ahmed Kantari.
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Immediately after Kantari’s arrival, Kwon was excluded from the squad. He been left out of all of their January fixtures.
This naturally led him to search for a new club this month – and that club looked to be Belgian Pro League Westerlo, who agreed a deal.
However, according to Belgian expert Sacha Tavolieri, the move has now collapsed due to a ‘last-minute disagreement’ between the parties.
Kwon had travelled to Belgium to complete the move to Westerlo, but now finds himself desperately scrambling for a move late in the window.
Could this be the case for any Celtic players? Michel-Ange Balikwisha is an obvious candidate; he doesn’t appear to have a future at Parkhead.
Handed a first start in months against sixth-tier in Auchinleck Talbot, and did not impress with his performance. Celtic paid £5 million for his services in the summer.
Do you expect any more departures from Celtic before the end of January?
Other Celtic summer signings from 2023 – where are they now?
Looking back on Mark Lawwell’s 2023 transfer window isn’t fun – forgotten names such as Odin Thiago Holm and Marco Tilio left Rodgers with a completely bloated squad.
£7 million was spent between Gustaf Lagerbielke and Maik Nawrocki, but loan signing Nat Phillips ended up ahead of them in the pecking order.
At £3.5 million, Luis Palma was the Jota replacement – he wasn’t an abject failure, making an impact for the team – but he was frozen out by Rodgers and is now on loan in Poland.
Yang Hyun-Jun and Paulo Bernardo are the only two still contributing for Celtic today.
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