These final few weeks of August are going to be huge for Celtic.
From Champions League qualifiers to the Glasgow derby, and the 2025 summer transfer window slamming shut on September 1, it’s all going to lay down the foundations for the coming months.
Despite the negative noise around the summer window, and Brendan Rodgers has been pretty vocal about it, Celtic have started life for the 2025/26 Premiership season, just as many expected, and that’s two wins from two.
And Hoops hero Stiliyan Petrov was keen to defend the man in the Celtic Park dugout.
Stiliyan Petrov on Celtic losing Kyogo Furuhashi and Nicolas Kuhn
Celtic sold Kyogo Furuhashi to Rennes in January, and after a nightmare six months in France, he has returned to British soil and signed for English Championship side Birmingham City.
Added to that, Nicolas Kuhn left for Como this summer, and once again, a replacement isn’t in the building, and Petrov wanted to highlight the ‘big loss’ of the Hoops heroes, as he told Sky Sports Football (10/08/25).
“Don’t forget, losing Kyogo and Kuhn, that’s 33 goals,” said Petrov. “This is a big loss.
“As a manager, you are constantly analysing and you are looking where to strengthen. You are looking for where the gaps are. This is a big loss.
“And he knows that to recover these 33 goals, and maybe a little bit of it, he has to add (via the summer transfer market), and it’s a normal reaction (re Rodgers’ comments).”
Kyogo and Kuhn’s numbers for Celtic last season
Up until the New Year, it could have been argued that Kuhn was Celtic’s best player because he was ripping it up like nobody else.
Kyogo was performing well, but his performances were steady, and his abrupt exit still didn’t help matters, especially in the Champions League.
Either way, with Kyogo and Kuhn no longer wearing the famous green and white colours, that’s a lot of goal involvements out of the team.
- Kuhn and Kyogo’s games combined: 83
- Goals: 33
- Assists: 19
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
