The 2024/25 Scottish Premiership campaign has already turned into a better one than expected for the Celtic first team group and manager Brendan Rodgers as we are storming away with the title once again.
23 games into the season we have lost only once, and have already built up a 16 point gap to the nearest challengers with 19 wins and a league best plus 53 goal difference, and our UEFA Champions League campaign sees us looking good for qualification through to the next round. We have two wins and three draws from our opening six matches and for those fans who dabble with a mobile casino or two, they will certainly be keeping an eye on our qualification odds this month.
With us half way through the month of January though, most of the talk in the media remains centred on transfer window rumour mill offerings and we feature highly in both incoming, and outgoing, speculation claims, and one of the biggest potential departures from our point of view are the stories again circling Japanese international striker Kyogo Furuhashi.
The soon to be 30 year old attacker has already seen pretty strong links with MLS side Atlanta return, but just as there will be those who say he looks like he is impressing to earn a move away, others would very strongly point out that his performance levels have not really changed and that he certainly does not look unhappy at the club right now and they would double down on the commitment he appears to be showing.
With upcoming games against Young Boys and Aston Villa to factor in, Furuhashi would also not be the only player relishing their chances of featuring in those matches and taking another opportunity to shine on that stage once again. Should he play his part, and a key role, in putting us through to the latter stages of the tournament, that would only help to put the spotlight further on his talent and many fans would feel he should be aiming higher than the MLS anyway.
Fans will naturally worry as deadline day approaches, but if anything was going to happen with Furuhashi’s future, it feels like a deal would already have been done to be honest – especially following the slip up the other week that led to Major League Soccer apologising to the club for publishing a story on its own website stating that a deal had already taken place.
That is certainly the line being hinted at by our 51 year old gaffer as in a recent appearance in front of the media, he again restated that whilst the club would not stand in the way of any player who had stated their desire to leave Parkhead during any particular transfer window, he was adamant that the speculation had not affected the player and that he had not been distracted in anyway when it came to training or matches themselves. He also felt that fans would recognise that for themselves as they watched on from the stands.
We will undoubtedly see a few more departures in the next few weeks though before the window closes, but with it pretty well known as to where Rodgers would like to strengthen the group this month, most eyes will be on potential incomings and how they can help us for the remainder of the year and then into the 2025/26 campaign.
