Ange Postecoglou has revealed that he initially attempted to bring January signing Daizen Maeda to the club in the summer transfer window.
The first transfer window for Postecoglou as the Celtic boss was certainly a busy one, which saw the 56-year old introduce 12 new signings to his squad due to the large scale of rebuild the club had to undergo with the playing staff.
One player who many were surprised that the ex Socceroos manager didn’t make a move for was attacker Maeda, who is, of course, now finally a Celtic player.
That doesn’t appear to be the case, though, with Postecoglou revealing in an interview with Celtic TV that he attempted to bring the 24-year old to Parkhead in the summer. However, it was better to do the deal with his former club, Yokohama F Marinos, in January.
“I worked with him in Japan at Yokohama. He’s a really determined character in terms of wanting to be the best he can be,” he said when asked about Maeda, as quoted by Football Scotland.
“He really wanted to improve. He’s one because I knew him and his style of play; I was keen to bring him in during the summer window, but it’s very hard to get Japanese players to come across mid-season.
“It was one I thought we can wait until January to bring him in. I know his attributes well. I think he’ll do well for us and in the league.”
As mentioned above, Maeda is a player Ange knows very well from his time spent in Japan, and it looks to be good business from the Hoops boss to bring the rapid frontman to the club.
It will certainly be interesting how quickly he settles into life as a Celtic player, which can only be helped by his understanding with Ange already and a few of his fellow Japanese internationalists in the squad.
