Late on Thursday evening it was being reported that Celtic had turned down a firm loan approach from Kashima Antlers for defender Yuki Kobayashi .
The 23 year old former Japanese Under 20 international centre half agreed to move to Parkhead back in November 2022, and his deal went through the following January transfer window, and under former gaffer Ange Postecoglou, he made six starts and one substitute appearance across all competitions.
However, since the return of Brendan Rodgers, the player is yet to feature for a single minute and he appears to be that far down the pecking order – even allowing for the injuries that have hit the squad in our more problematic 2023/24 domestic Scottish campaign – that he has very much become quite the forgotten man. You could have taken all 50 spins at https://gamblenator.com/au/free-spins/50-free-spins and you probably would not have been able to predict this turn in his fortunes.
If the reports are true and we have blocked a move than would see him return to his homeland and the J-League, the only educated guess to make is it is squarely down to the players that are out of contention and sitting on the side lines, and Rodgers simply does not fancy reducing our numbers any further before the end of the campaign as we look to re-establish ourselves at top spot in the Scottish Premiership and plenty of fans who like a flutter would take a few free pokies at us doing just that.
Kashima Antlers could well come back with another offer as their domestic transfer window remains open right now, but despite his lack of game time this season, it is not the first time we have blocked a potential departure. He has previously attracted interest from Finnish side HJK and Major League Soccer sides Dallas and Real Salt Lake.
The chances of any deal being done will ultimately boil down to whether or not our current injury situation shows signs of easing, as although Rodgers has had his issues with the performances of the team this season, Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda and Liel Abada’s lengthy spells with injury certainly have not helped our chances. And of course, since then Abada has now moved on to the MLS due to other issues having barely kicked a ball in anger this term.
In terms of good news, it is fully expected that Cameron Carter-Vickers will return to training in today’s sessions with an eye to returning to the pitch in the clash against St Johnstone on Saturday, and as we all know, he has been a massive miss for us and in his 21 appearances this year, we have looked a far stronger unit when he has been in the back line.
If he can prove his fitness and not fall down to another niggly injury now, it might give us the room to move Kobayashi on, as he clearly is not in our plans.
