Celtic sold their homegrown Maeda for just £600k

Can Celtic go on and safe a sixth treble in simply 9 seasons?

A fortnight in the past, the Hoops suffered solely their third defeat of this Premiership season, gut-wrenchingly crushed 3-2 by Rangers at Parkhead, the guests’ winner coming within the last minute of regulation time.

Regardless of this, after seeing off Hearts, they continue to be in management on the high of the desk with solely seven fixtures nonetheless to play, additionally via to the Scottish Cup semi-finals, set to face St Johnstone at Hampden, for a spot within the last, on Easter Sunday.

So, whereas one Celtic attacker is having an astonishingly good season, this crew can be even stronger had they been in a position to maintain onto their celebrity homegrown attacker.

The information Daizen Maeda may break this season

By heading dwelling through the Glasgow derby, earlier than including a brace in Saturday’s 3-0 win, Daizen Maeda took his tally to 30 objectives for the season, bagging 11 in his final 9 Premiership outings.

Meantime, the Japanese worldwide ahead grew to become the primary Celtic participant since Joe Craig in 1977/78 to attain 4 occasions in a single European Cup or Champions League marketing campaign, on track in opposition to Slovan Bratislava, Borussia Dortmund, Membership Brugge and Bayern Munich.

Famously, Henrik Larsson scored 41 occasions throughout all competitions within the 2003/04 season, however how does Maeda examine to Celtic’s main marksman subsequently?

Because the desk outlines, Maeda requires 10 objectives from the remaining seven Premiership fixtures, and probably two Scottish Cup ties, to equal Griffiths’ post-Larsson document of 40 objectives in a single Celtic season; it is actually doable.

No matter whether or not he reaches that milestone or not, Maeda’s output has actually skyrocketed this season, described by present teammate Alistair Johnston as “some of the in-form gamers in Europe” again in February.

Nevertheless, did the Hoops have an much more helpful homegrown attacker on their books, that they by some means allowed to depart for mere compensation?

Celtic’s homegrown Daizen Maeda

Ben Doak joined Celtic as a child from Ayr United, making simply two appearances at senior degree in hoops, handed his debut in opposition to Dundee United by Ange Postecoglou in January 2022.

Nevertheless, after not signing an expert contract in Glasgow, he joined Liverpool in the summertime of that yr, the Reds paying a mere £600k in compensation.

He made simply 5 senior appearances, totaling 247 minutes, throughout his first marketing campaign on Merseyside, however has taken his sport to a complete new stratosphere this season, loaned out to Middlesbrough within the EFL Championship.

Doak has scored three objectives and offered seven assists in England’s second tier, with the 5 foot 9 speedster emulating Maeda – who can also be of slight stature at simply 5 foot 8 – in representing a blistering presence down both flank.

For all these preliminary highs, sadly, his season is likely to be over, not seen since 25 January following surgical procedure on his thigh, with supervisor Michael Carrick confirming he is ‘gone again to Liverpool’ to meet his rehab.

Previous to this setback, nonetheless, Doak shows for Boro, in addition to for Scotland within the Nations League, had earned rave opinions.

Journalist Henry Winter believes he’s a “large prospect”, radio presenter Ewen Cameron labels him a “celebrity within the making” whereas Martin Watt of BBC Sport notes he’s Scotland’s subsequent ‘wonderkid’.

So, let’s examine if Doak’s statistics underline what all of the hype is about.

Because the desk outlines, Doak ranks extremely for assists, probabilities created and particularly dribbling, ranked fourth for progressive carries and first 4 carries into the opponents’ penalty space within the Championship this season, regardless of the actual fact 218 gamers have performed extra minutes than he has.

His performances on Teeside noticed each Crystal Palace and Ipswich bid a reported £16m for his providers in January, these bids and others had been rejected by Liverpool, additional indicating his hovering standing.

Thus, Celtic should rue the actual fact they may not persuade Doak to remain, as a result of simply think about him and Maeda linking up.