itstargetnews
celtics In what has been a tumultuous season at Parkhead, the Scottish champions are heading for even more misery with the Scottish Championship just seconds away from Saturday night’s Scottish Cup tie.
It’s been a season of Champions League qualifying disaster and League Cup final embarrassment, and this weekend’s game looks set to be a new low for the Glasgow giants.
A moment of magic was needed and newcomer Junior Adamu stepped up, the Austria forward deftly back-heeling Sebastian Tunecti’s cutback into the bottom corner, sparking madness – and relief – rather than Celtic Park.
Questions remain over the club’s string of signings in late January, but the 2-1 win over Dundee marked the perfect start for Adama, with the central line-up certainly much stronger than it was just a few weeks ago.
indeed, Martin O’NeillThe only real dilemma is deciding who should lead the team from the start, with the on-loan Freiburg star set to face off against Bundesliga import Thomas Chiwankara.
Chivankara vs Adamu – Who should take the lead for Celtic?
Saturday’s nerve-wracking win brought renewed recognition to Chivankara, the tall Czech marksman who has already scored a goal and assisted an assist in an encouraging start to Scottish football in recent weeks.
It must be said that the 25-year-old’s impact was limited last game and he was left eating scraps for most of the night, although his link-up performance when he received the ball was impressive and the Hoops just need to adapt to a different center-forward style.
O’Neal himself compared him to Chris Sutton, Manchester United’s £74m strikerBenjamin Sesko, regarding Cvancara, the player on loan from Borussia Monchengladbach has a lanky, somewhat ungainly frame, although he poses a real opponent with his blistering pace and natural ability in the air.
In Manchester, Cesc’s role has recently been limited to an influential player off the bench, and perhaps this could be the end result for Chiwankara, perhaps evolving into George Giakoumakis to Adamu’s Kyougo Furuhashi.
In fact, Adamu is a better fit for the Celtics’ recent center style, as a more agile and mobile nine with the ability to drift out wide or deep into the backcourt to influence the flow of the game.
Like Kavankara, the 24-year-old has not had it easy in recent years, although his previous work in Austria is encouraging, scoring 34 goals and assisting in 84 games for Red Bull Salzburg and 37 goals in 49 games for Livering.
With one-on-one now in Glasgow, the shirt could soon be lost to Adam. Meanwhile, there is a suggestion that, elsewhere, a man from Parkhead’s past is emerging as a greater talent than these two.
Celtics have sold bigger talent than Adam
Celtic are quickly making up for lost time after a poor summer of signings, leaving a forward department that includes an unproven trio of Johnny Kenny, Nobu Yamada and Callum Osmander.
This group of forwards is a far cry from the pomp and glory of the Kyogo and Gakumakis era, and Anj Postkoglu is fortunate to have two truly elite forwards, both with different attributes and qualities.
Kyogo scored 54 goals in just 83 games under the Australian, while Jakumakis scored 26 goals in 57 games as a substitute, despite starting just 22 games.
The Greek power was then “better versionAccording to Frank McAvennie, in the form of Oh Hyeon-gyu, the Korean will arrive in January 2023 as a new backup center forward.
However, the next 18 months or so were forgettable, with Wu’s game time particularly hampered in the second half of the 2023/24 season following the loan spell of Adam Idah.
Overall, he only scored 12 goals in 47 games for the Hoops, seven of which came in his first 21 games, but he proved even worse than Giakoumakis at replacing Kyogo, with his role further diminished after Brendan Rodgers came on.
A £3m move to Genk in the summer of 2024 proved final and the fact that the 24-year-old hasn’t looked back since has made Rodgers and his team-mates look a bit silly given Celtic’s central forward woes in recent years.
|
Oh – 25/26 Statistics |
||
|---|---|---|
|
competition |
game |
Goals (Assists) |
|
professional league |
20 |
6(3) |
|
european league |
8 |
3(0) |
|
Europa LeagueQ |
2 |
1(0) |
|
crockey cup |
2 |
0 (0) |
|
super league |
1 |
1(1) |
|
all |
33 |
11(4) |
Wu, who scored 22 goals in 73 games for Belgium, made a high-profile move to Turkish giants Besiktas in the recent transfer window for a reported fee of around £10 million.
Like Adamu, the physical forward has played just one game in Istanbul, although his debut was more impressive, scoring a goal and assisting an assist against Antalyaspor at the weekend.
The newcomer’s goal, a sensational overhead kick, marked the way in which he had endeared himself to his new club, ensuring he took his league tally to seven over the course of the season – more than Adamu had managed in his entire tenure in Germany.
It may still be frustrating that Celtic moved on Wu so quickly and so cheaply, with early signs suggesting he could overtake Kawankara and Adamu in the next six months or so.
