Celtic had been heading towards but extra distress on this turbulent season at Parkhead, with the Scottish champions mere seconds away from a swift Scottish Cup exit on Saturday night.
It has been a marketing campaign of Champions League qualifying catastrophe and League Cup closing embarrassment, with the weekend conflict trying set to be a brand new nadir for the Glasgow giants.
A second of magic was wanted, and up stepped new man Junior Adamu, with the Austrian striker cleverly backheeling Sebastian Tounekti’s pull-back into the underside nook, sparking delirium – and loads of aid – as an alternative Celtic Park.
Query marks encompass the membership’s spate of late January signings, however the 2-1 win over Dundee marked the proper means for Adamu to get going, with the centre-forward division actually far stronger than it was only a matter of weeks in the past.
Certainly, Martin O’Neill’s solely actual conundrum is deciding on who ought to lead the road from the beginning, with the on-loan Freiburg star set to do battle with fellow Bundesliga import, Tomas Cvancara.
Cvancara vs Adamu – who ought to lead the road for Celtic?
Saturday’s nervy slender victory noticed Cvancara once more given the nod, with the towering Czech marksman having already lodged a aim and an help in latest weeks, amid an encouraging begin in Scottish soccer.
The 25-year-old’s influence was restricted final day out, it have to be stated, having fed off scraps for a lot of the night, though when he did obtain the ball, his link-up play was spectacular, with the Hoops merely needing to regulate to having a special profile of striker via the center.
Likened to Chris Sutton by O’Neill himself, there are shades of Manchester United’s £74m striker, Benjamin Sesko, about Cvancara, with the on-loan Borussia Monchengladbach man possessing that lanky, considerably ungainly physique, albeit whereas posing an actual handful together with his stunning velocity and innate aerial capability.
In Manchester, Sesko’s position has been restricted to one thing of an influence participant off the bench of late, and maybe that may very well be the eventual end result for Cvancara, maybe morphing into the Giorgos Giakoumakis to Adamu’s Kyogo Furuhashi.
Certainly, it’s Adamu who extra suits the mould of Celtic’s latest center-forward types, working as a extra agile and cellular quantity 9, with that capability to float vast or drop deep to affect proceedings.
Like Cvancara, latest years have not been type to the 24-year-old, though his prior work in Austria is cause for encouragement, racking up 34 targets and assists in 84 video games for Crimson Bull Salzburg, alongside 37 aim involvements in 49 video games for FC Liefering.
With one in a single now in Glasgow, the jersey may very well be Adamu’s to lose earlier than too lengthy. Elsewhere, in the meantime, a person of Parkhead previous is rising as an excellent greater expertise than each males, it may very well be argued.
Celtic already bought an even bigger expertise than Adamu
Celtic are swiftly making up for misplaced time following an abject summer time of recruitment, having been left with a striker division that included the unproven trio of Johnny Kenny, Shin Yamada and Callum Osmand.
That pool of forwards was a far cry from the times of Kyogo and Giakoumakis of their pomp, with Ange Postecoglou having been blessed with two genuinely elite strikers, each of whom provided completely different attributes and qualities.
Below the Aussie’s watch, Kyogo scored 54 occasions in simply 83 video games, whereas having performed second fiddle, Giakoumakis scored 26 occasions from 57 outings, though whereas beginning simply 22 occasions.
The Greek powerhouse was then changed by a “higher model” within the type of Oh Hyeon-gyu, within the view of Frank McAvennie, with the Korean arriving as the brand new center-forward understudy in January 2023.
What adopted was one thing of a forgettable 18 months or so, nonetheless, with Oh’s sport time significantly hampered within the second half of 2023/24, following the mortgage seize of Adam Idah.
In all, his 47 video games for the Hoops yielded simply 12 targets – seven of which got here in his first 21 outings – but he proved even much less efficient than Giakoumakis at displacing Kyogo, together with his position diminishing even additional following Brendan Rodgers’ arrival within the dugout.
A £3m change to Genk proved the eventual end result in the summertime of 2024, and in fact, the 24-year-old hasn’t regarded again since, leaving Rodgers and Co trying just a little foolish contemplating Celtic’s center-forwards woes within the years since.
Oh – 25/26 stats | ||
|---|---|---|
Competitors | Video games | Targets (Assists) |
Professional League | 20 | 6 (3) |
Europa League | 8 | 3 (0) |
Europa League Q | 2 | 1 (0) |
Croky Cup | 2 | 0 (0) |
Tremendous Lig | 1 | 1 (1) |
Complete | 33 | 11 (4) |
Oh’s time in Belgium noticed him internet 22 occasions in 73 video games, incomes a high-profile transfer to Turkish giants Besiktas in the newest switch window, becoming a member of for a reported charge of round £10m.
Like Adamu, the bodily ahead is just one sport into his time in Istanbul, though his debut bow proved much more spectacular, with one aim and one help within the weekend draw with Antalyaspor.
The brand new man’s strike had been a sensational overhead kick, marking a advantageous method to endear himself to his new membership, making certain he is now as much as seven league targets in all this season – greater than Adamu has achieved throughout his whole stint in Germany.
There may stay a component of frustration that Celtic moved on from Oh so swiftly, and so cheaply, with the early indicators suggesting he may outshine each Cvancara and Adamu over the subsequent six months or so.
Celtic flop must not ever begin for the membership once more after Adamu signing
This Celtic flop shouldn’t begin one other sport this season after Junior Adamu joined the membership within the winter window.
