Celtic confirm their first January deal

Celtic have announced the transfer of Yosuke Ideguchi to Vissel Kobe, the club that supplied the hoops with Kyogo Furuhashi and Yuki Kobayashi.

The midfield player, along with Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda, joined Celtic two years ago. However, his career at Celtic was effectively cut short when he suffered a nasty injury on his debut against Alloa Athletic in the Scottish Cup. In the following match, Matt O’Riley made his debut on the road against Hearts.

Ideguchi, who was billed as a holding midfielder and had played for Leeds United in Europe before, discovered that position was rarely used at Celtic, where they often have 70% of the possession in domestic games. Oliver Abildgaard and James McCarthy met similar ends.

It appears that Celtic have received a 1m euros fee for the midfielder, the same fee that they paid to Gamba Osaka two years ago. With exchange rate fluctuations there may be a small profit or loss.

Ideguchi spent the 2023 J-League season on loan at Avispa Fukuoka, where he was shortlisted for the Player of the Year Award. He made five substitute appearances during his “debut” season.

Although the January window has started slowly for both incoming and outgoing players, more departures from Celtic are anticipated.