Celtic boss holds 'urgent talks' to reintegrate 33-goal ace as Rangers star looks to regain place after ‘head turned’
Celtic and Rangers were both able to retain key stars on deadline day, but both managers now face huge tasks to get them settled back into their squads
Following Scotland’s relatively successful international break, attention shifts back to domestic matters as Celtic and Rangers both look to return to winning ways after an uninspiring 0-0 draw in the Glasgow derby.
Celtic are the pacesetters in the division but they currently look significantly weaker than the team that picked up 92 points last season. They’ve allowed the likes of Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah to leave this summer, following Kyogo Furuhashi’s exit in January and find themselves currently significantly short of goals after firing blank in three of their last four competitive matches across all competitions.
The Hoops have lacked fluidity in the final third, and one of the main players the club needs to step up is last term’s top scorer Daizen Maeda. The 27-year-old scored 33 across all competitions last term, including 16 in the league and was subsequently awarded the PFA Scotland Player’s Player of the Season award. However, his long-term future is far from certain after he only expressed a desire to leave Parkhead late in the transfer window to only amplify problems in what has been a hugely underwhelming transfer window in many respects.
Brendan Rodgers schedules urgent talks with Daizen Maeda
Celtic’s hope of success both domestically and in Europe are likely to rest on Daizen Maeda and whether he can replicate the form he showed last season, in what was a career best campaign.
And Rodgers is anxious to discover how affected the £20million-rated forward, who starred last season, is at failing to get his move away from Celtic over the summer, with Sun Sport claiming he’d already agreed personal terms with another club. The outlet believes Rodgers plans to hold urgent talks with the player to gain an insight into his headspace as he aims to reintegrate the Japanese forward into the group.
Maeda told Japanese media: “I had been talking to Celtic until the last day, but it didn’t work out. I had received an offer and I had been telling the club I wanted to take the next step. But Celtic hadn’t been able to make any good reinforcements, so they couldn’t let me leave.There were some things that I had agreed to personally, so I wanted to take on the challenge. I’d been talking to the club since before the end of the previous season.I always told them I wanted to take the next step — but we had league games and lost in the Champions League qualifiers, so it was difficult.”
Earlier this week Stephen McGinn also called out Celtic for their lack of consistency in the window after denying Maeda the chance to depart.
Rangers gem returns to training after transfer saga
New Rangers boss Russell Martin was forced to navigate his way through a series of different challenges in his first summer window at Ibrox and one of those was retaining the services of Nico Raskin despite reports of interest from the Premier League.
Raskin, who is described by former interim boss Barry Ferguson as the type of player that can lift Rangers back into title contention, was bombed out of the squad for the Glasgow derby following his conduct behind the scenes.
Martin sent Raskin to train away from the first team and informed the media that the Belgian was one of the names that head had been turned by recent transfer speculation. The former Southampton boss has since held showdown talks with Raskin and has reintegrated the midfielder into first team training.
Raskin said, via Sun Sport: “I’m going to do my best to turn it around. I know I can be important for my club. I have a good relationship with the fans “My situation at the club is complicated. I’ll try to sort it out but it’s not just up to me. I absolutely love Rangers. I try to give my all. Do I want a transfer in the coming weeks? No, that is not the intention. I want to regain my place in the team. It’s not an easy situation.”