Celtic supervisor Wilfried Nancy’s time in Glasgow received off to a rocky begin, along with his facet struggling a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Motherwell within the Scottish Premiership on Tuesday evening.
The Hoops are three factors behind Hearts within the title race and will degree with Rangers in the event that they lose Saturday’s Outdated Agency recreation.
Celtic have misplaced 5 of their seven video games beneath the previous Columbus Crew supervisor, together with the League Cup remaining in opposition to St Mirren, however the January switch window opens on Thursday, giving the supervisor the prospect to usher in homegrown gamers.
Proper-back Julian Araujo is reported to be signing for the Hoops on mortgage from Premier League facet Bournemouth, with the golf equipment in talks, however he’s not the one star more likely to transfer to Parkhead.
Versatile attacker fascinated with shifting to Celtic
Nancy nonetheless lacks a top quality first-choice centre-forward at Celtic, with Johnny Kenny lacking 4 ‘huge possibilities’ with out scoring beneath him and Daen Maeda being left vacant in opposition to Motherwell. There’s a striker who’s eager to hitch the membership.
In response to the Every day File, the Hoops head coach is trying to usher in 4 new gamers to strengthen his squad within the January switch window.
The newspaper says he desires to signal a right-back, right-winger, centre-back and centre-forward for the second half of the season, and hopes these additions will assist enhance the effectiveness of the brand new 3-4-2-1 system.
It has been added that Columbus Crew striker Diego Rossi is fascinated with reuniting with Nancy at Parkhead, however there is no such thing as a affirmation that Celtic are fascinated with signing him.
However the Every day File reveals {that a} “main provide” from the Scottish giants is required to persuade the MLS facet to half methods with the versatile ahead subsequent month.
Why Celtic ought to signal Diego Rossi
The Premiership champions ought to make the most of Rossi’s reported curiosity in a transfer to the membership and hurry up on his achievements. As a result of he could be Nancy’s model of Kyōgo Furuhashi.
In response to WhoScored, no Celtic striker has scored greater than 15 objectives within the Premiership since Adam Ayder scored 13 objectives final season and the Japan worldwide bagged 27 objectives within the division in 2022/23.
The previous Hoops star scored 34 objectives in all competitions for the membership that season, however the membership are nonetheless trying to find a alternative for the prolific Japanese star within the quantity 9 place.
Rossi’s statistics over the previous two years with Columbus Crew, whereas enjoying for Nancy, counsel he’s a participant with the qualities to turn out to be a prolific scorer who may finally substitute Kyogo at Parkhead if the membership are in a position to signal him subsequent month.
The Uruguay worldwide completed the 2025 season with 19 objectives and 5 assists in 37 video games throughout all competitions for the U.S. nationwide workforce, in keeping with SofaScore. This consists of 16 objectives in MLS.
2025 MLS | Diego Rossi | Rank vs ST |
|---|---|---|
xG | 13.96 | Prime 4% |
the aim | 16 | Prime 3% |
xG on track | 16.24 | Prime 3% |
shot on track | 47 | Prime 3% |
Shah | 6.46 | Prime 13% |
help | 4 | Prime 31% |
Statistics by FotMob | ||
As you possibly can see from the desk above, Rossi has scored 16 league objectives from an xG of simply 13.96. This exhibits that he’s a succesful scorer who not often misses huge alternatives to search out the again of the online.
In the meantime, in keeping with FotMob, Johnny Kenny has scored 4 objectives from 6.02xG in Celtic’s Premiership this season, whereas Daen Maeda has scored six objectives from 7.02xG, indicating that Nancy presently lack an environment friendly finisher within the remaining third.
Rossi’s type in 2025 suggests he can be introduced in to supply the scientific presence that has been lacking since Kyogo left to signal with Rennes firstly of the yr, however his efficiency within the 2025 MLS workforce can be something however flashy.
The 27-year-old star, who was hailed as “egocentric” by former supervisor Bob Bradley, continued to impress in 2024 with a powerful 21 objectives from 13.99xG in 48 appearances in all competitions, in keeping with Sofascore.
These statistics present that Rossi has been prolific and environment friendly over the previous two seasons with Columbus Crew, scoring 40 objectives within the two campaigns mixed, suggesting he has the potential to be a dependable No. 9 that Celtic lack.
The versatile ahead, who can play as a quantity 9 or quantity 10 behind the striker, has introduced such performances to Nancy at his present membership as nicely. Which means he may get a full begin at Parkhead beneath a supervisor he’s already extremely conversant in.
Not simply Schmeichel: ‘Kilmarnock degree’ dud mustn’t begin once more at Celtic
This fiasco for Celtic is that after the 2-0 defeat to Motherwell, the membership should not be beginning once more and it is not Kasper Schmeichel.
Celtic will due to this fact be hoping to signal the Columbus Crew centre-forward over the road when the January switch window opens.
