One of the talking points produced by the first Ange Postecoglou/Dominic McKay joint press conference was the new Celtic chief executive’s suggestion that there will be no imminent change of structure at the club.
Celtic arguably need at least 10 first-team players, and are without a head of recruitment or the imminent appointment of a sporting director. They have extended the contracts of Leigh Griffiths and Anthony Ralston for another year — divisive decisions that many fans worry suggest the squad rebuild is not as on-track as they’d hoped.
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Celtic need both a quantity and quality of bodies in through the door. Two or three desperately under-manned positions especially need reinforcing with first-team-ready players before the first leg of a Champions League qualifier against FC Midtjylland in less than three weeks; particularly right-back, left-wing and centre-back.
The two new players who have arrived so far, Liam Shaw and Joey Dawson, are former head of football operations Nick Hammond’s recommendations, but the others who follow will presumably be at the request and recommendation of new manager Postecoglou.
Given his entire career has been spent in Asian football, it would be unsurprising if it was a market that Postecoglou returns to. Leagues such as Japan’s J1 League are burdened by the unfair stereotype of a retirement home for European players on the wrong side of 30. But there are players in it who could potentially fit Celtic’s transfer profile of relatively raw talents who can make a first-team impression, develop over a couple of seasons, and then be sold for profit.
Data company FiveThirtyEight’s Global Club Soccer Rankings attempt to compare the quality of individual clubs across the world.
Global Football League Rankings is a separate organisation that uses FiveThirtyEight’s data to calculate the average “soccer power index” of each league’s clubs, and the standard deviation of the values, to rank competitions instead. It claims the J1 League (25th) is one place behind the Scottish Premiership in the table of best leagues.
It is worth noting before we start that attempting to compare the J1 League to the Premiership is inherently problematic, especially given the latter’s greater emphasis on physicality. There would be no guarantee over a player’s adaptation to the Scottish top flight either.
But with those caveats in mind, here are five potential Celtic transfer targets.
Kyogo Furuhashi — forward, Vissel Kobe
Capable of playing across a front three but largely used by Vissel Kobe on the left wing, Kyogo Furuhashi is a 26-year-old forward. He, like all but one of the Japanese players on this list, turned professional through the football university programme — a process for nurturing sporting talent and furthering education there not too dissimilar to the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the USA.
He played for his university, Chuo, until he graduated in 2016 at age 21, and began his professional career a year later, with J2 League side FC Gifu, before joining Kobe in 2018.
He is the leading scorer in the J1 League this season, with 13 goals in 19 games and has three goals in six appearances for Japan.
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Smarterscout is a website that gives players a rating from zero to 99, relating to either how often they perform a given stylistic action (such as shooting volume) or how effective they are at it (such as measuring how well they progress the ball upfield) compared with others playing in their position.
It is worth noting for all of these profiles that some metrics are adjusted for English Premier League standard, so may actually ‘punish’ each player’s metrics more than if you were to look at how they fit in the Scottish Premiership.
You can see from Furuhashi’s expected goals (xG) from shot creation (72 out of 99) that his actions frequently contribute to his team’s creation of chances. Furuhashi’s profile shows him to be attack-minded. He runs with the ball regularly (carry and dribble volume: 81 out of 99), moves the ball upfield frequently (progressive passing: 99 out of 99) and can get a shot away quickly (shot volume: 95 out of 99).
Given Celtic arguably need two new strikers and two new wingers — to replace Patryk Klimala, Mohamed Elyounoussi and potentially Odsonne Edouard (as well as cover on the right wing for James Forrest) — Furuhashi’s versatility could kill two birds with one stone.
Postecoglou likes his wingers to cut inside to shoot or be more involved in central link-up play, so Furuhashi could deputise as competition for Mikey Johnston on the left, or as a central striker who can drift wide and be heavily involved in link-up play with team-mates.
Ryuho Kikuchi — centre-back, Vissel Kobe
A 24-year-old defender who initially joined J2 League side Renofa Yamaguchi after leaving university in 2019 before making the step up to Vissel Kobe last year, Ryuho Kikuchi has had a promising early career.
Kobe have most often played in a 4-4-2 this season. Kikuchi appears to love the art of defending, as you can see from his smarterscout profile.
For someone in his position, he is unrivalled in how frequently he makes defensive actions such as blocks, tackles and fouls. He gets up for headers and clamps onto his man when he has opportunities to defend (defending intensity rating: 95 out of 99). On the ball, you can see he will most often play it short (link-up play volume: 91 out of 99) and frequently looks to bring the ball out from the back (carry and dribble volume: 81 out of 99).
As with many of these players, his relative inexperience may be a red flag as he’s made just 32 top-flight appearances. However, Kikuchi’s purely defensive profile is compelling.
Celtic arguably need two centre-backs, one in particular who can emulate Kristoffer Ajer’s ability in possession, if the Norwegian’s presumed departure does happen. Even if, judging by this evidence, Kikuchi lacks Ajer’s ability to break defensive lines with his passing, he could potentially replicate his tactic of carrying the ball out from the back — another tick in his plus column.
Kaoru Mitoma — left winger, Kawasaki Frontale
Mitoma, who turned 24 in May, is regarded by many as one of the best players in the J1 League — if not the best.
He was part of Frontale’s academy but at 18 did not feel ready to make the transition into senior football, so attended the University of Tsukuba. He starred in the Kanto University Soccer League, being named in the all-league XI in all three of his university years, and powering Tsukuba to the last 16 of the Emperor’s Cup, Japan’s oldest cup competition and equivalent to the Scottish Cup. They knocked out three J1 League sides along the way.
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Mitoma started at Frontale properly in the 2020 season. After the league returned from pandemic-enforced suspension, he established himself as one of the best forwards in the division. He scored 13 goals and provided 12 assists in 30 games (only 11 of them starts) for last season, with that goals tally making him the first “rookie” since former Mainz and Newcastle United striker Yoshinori Muto to reach double figures. After 20 league appearances this season, there has been a slight downturn to eight goals and three assists, but Mitoma is still averaging a goal or assist every 112 minutes.
You can see from his smarterscout chart how frequently he looks to run with the ball at his feet (carry and dribble volume rating: 97 out of 99). That is often his method to get the ball into dangerous areas (xG from ball progression: 88 out of 99), rather than playing long balls upfield (progressive passing: 18 out of 99).
Interestingly, Mitoma does not shy away from defending, regularly getting plenty of opportunities to put a foot in (defending intensity: 98 out of 99) and reading the play to pick up loose balls (ball recoveries and interceptions: 90 out of 99).
Putting aside the caveats of relative inexperience and the unknowns in transitioning leagues listed at the start of this article, Mitoma is a very exciting prospect. Similarly to Furuhashi, he could challenge Johnston for the left-wing slot, or even provide competition for Forrest on the right as he has been played on that flank regularly, even if his natural inclination is to start on the other side.
His goalscoring record, creativity and dribbling flair make him stand out as an appealing attacking option but that defensive work rate might be the most convincing aspect of his profile. Postecoglou likes all his attacking players to all press aggressively, both the opposition players themselves and their passing lanes, and Mitoma looks tailor-made for that responsibility.
Takeru Kishimoto — right-back, Tokushima Vortis
This 23-year-old has an appealing statistical profile for a full-back — one that suggests good involvement defensively and going forward. Kishimoto did not come through Japan’s university system, but emerged from J1 League club Cerezo Osaka’s academy. He went out on several loans, including one to J2 League’s brilliantly named Mito Hollyhock, but after a successful loan at Tokushima Vortis in 2019, he joined them permanently and helped win promotion to the J1-League for the 2021 season.
Vortis most commonly play in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Kishimoto as the right-back. He looks strong defensively, regularly competing in duels, and frequently performs defensive duties to ensure the opposition do not progress further upfield (defending impact rating: 61 out of 99).
He is gets involved in the attacking third (receptions in opposition box: 66 out of 99) and is not afraid to shoot (shot volume: 93 out of 99), scoring three goals and providing one assist in 20 appearances this season.
Given Ralston is Celtic’s only first-team right-back, without being unnecessarily cruel to him, they need to reinforce this area considerably. Postecoglou favours attack-minded, overlapping full-backs, with his underlying philosophy of attempting to dominate possession and overload defences. Statistically, Kishimoto looks like he can offer that balance between defensive solidity and attacking intent.
Perhaps the most glaring red flag is that while Kishimoto is heavily involved in the final third, his middling grades for link-up play volume (54/99) and xG from shot creation (47/99) suggest he is maybe not quite as creative in these areas as Celtic might like.
Aaron Mooy — central midfield, Shanghai Port
Mooy is naturally a different profile from the first four players profiled in this piece, with most fans likely to be aware of him from his years playing in the UK with St Mirren, Huddersfield Town and Brighton & Hove Albion. The Australia international is now in the Chinese Super League, and as he turns 31 in September is significantly older than the other players listed here so resale value is unlikely.
But he is an interesting candidate to consider, with The Athletic understanding there is genuine interest in bringing him to Celtic. Similarly to the links with Mat Ryan, both players thrived under Postecoglou in Australia’s national team between 2013 and 2017. Can Postecoglou help resurrect Mooy’s best form for club and country?
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Mooy has not had many minutes at Shanghai Port since joining last year, making only nine appearances, so instead, we looked at his profile from the 2019-20 season with Brighton, where he was played across the entire midfield and on either wing. That level of versatility may also be appealing to Celtic.
Considering his minutes from 2021 with caution, we can still see that his key characteristics of keeping the play ticking over with his passes (link-up play volume rating: 74 out of 99) and reading the play well defensively (ball recoveries and interceptions: 99 out of 99) are still there. He looks proficient in an attacking sense, but it is worth reiterating this is from a small sample size.
Mooy at Celtic is an interesting proposition. Although he has barely featured for Shanghai Port this season, there is still evidently a talented player there who could contribute to Celtic regularly.
He is already well-versed in Postecoglou’s playing philosophy and training ground demands from international duty, and could perform the role of lieutenant and exemplar for other players. His positional utility means he could effectively be fielded anywhere in midfield, on the wings or as a No 10.
(Photo: Jeff Holmes/PA Images via Getty Images)