Another Japanese Bhoy could be heading to Celtic

So with that in mind I thought I’d source some clips and get a bit of background on players linked with Celtic this summer, so you can save yourselves the bother of having to do so for yourself, but also to see just how many names we’re linked with and if any of them actually get pictured with a Celtic scarf above their head at Celtic Park.

With Kieran Tierney – Happy Birthday by the way KT, you share your birthday with this writer, and I only found that out today! – due to arrive for his Celtic second coming, and Greg Taylor seemingly moving to Greece having ‘lived it and loved it’ in his trophy laden time in the Hoops, then left back may be an area Celtic are looking to recruit.

As such a couple of left back links have already appeared so let’s start there shall we.

Now firstly I do appreciate there are a couple of Celtic left-backs already with the club who may well be thinking ‘what about me?’ whenever they see the Hoops linked with another transfer.

Therefore, I’m by no means writing either Matthew Anderson – who has apparently been very impressive on loan at Admira Wacker this season, or Adam Montgomery who if nothing else was part of a Queens Park side who gave Celtic fans one of their best days last season outside of Celtic’s success when the Spiders papped the latest Ibrox club out the Scottish Cup –at home no less! – off, as there is still another pre-season for them to impress Brendan Rodgers before decisions are made on their future, but you’d have to feel fairly confident Celtic will be looking for another left back, hopefully a young prospect to support KT when he returns home. After all we all know the injury concerns Kieran has had over the years.

The first link and one that whets the appetite is Djurgårdens IF’s left back Keita Kosugi. Have a wee look at the YouTube compilation, with the usual caveats of any compilation clip applied.

Kosugi seems and excellent prospect, in fact if we are interested it may be the window or bust for Brendan Rodgers and his recruitment team, that’s because Kosugi has already caught the eye for some data driven clubs and Atalanta may be the most prominent of those.

The Japanese full back has already played 45 games for his Swedish club and has five goals and two assists to his name. He has also some European exposure which should be something Celtic consider and has played 11 games in the Conference League, impressively reaching the semi-finals this season before losing to winners Chelsea.

He hasn’t played champions league football but he does have 5 qualifying rounds on his CV so he’ll know the landscape Celtic will be heading into come August.

He’s yet to be capped for the Japanese national team but he’s an Under 19 international (he’s not long turned 19) with the Blue Samurai and he’ll arguably be looking for step-up to assist in realising his international aspirations.

Statistically he’s also quite an interesting player as per FBref his blocks and clearance have him in the high 90’s percentile and that’s the same for non-penalty XG. He also scores well for progressive passes, progressive carries and for successful take-ons and for Expected Assisted Goals, all of which points to a defender with an attacking instinct, an ideal replacement then for Greg Taylor but also one who may complement Kieran Tierney, rather than match his strengths.

He comes out well matched with Zakaria El Ouahdi of Genk, but is three years younger, and with Jérémy Oyono of Frosinone who is four years his elder, so his progression for his age looks impressive.

There’s a lot to like about

and although it’s all speculation folks, he is the sort of profile Celtic should be considering. That’s because whoever plays back up to Tierney is likely to play a substantial number of games as Brendan Rodgers will no doubt look to manage and protect Tierney through the course of the season.

Keita Kosugi would fit the bill, but would he be up for the part of a support actor and would Celtic spend the £4m fee that was mooted to be under consideration from Atalanta? We’ll soon know the answer.

There is a further rumoured left back target from down south and we’ll have a look at that one next time out.

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