Daizen Maeda contract latest as Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers meets transfer necessities head on

Daily Record

19-07-2025

The Scottish champions demolished the Premier League side as they ramped up their pre-season preparations
Brendan Rodgers welcomed the arrival of speed demon Shin Yamada - then promised Celtic fans the Hoops are working flat out to add more firepower in quick time.
‌
Japanese striker Yamada - dubbed quicker than Daizen Maeda - was paraded ahead of the demolition of Newcastle in the Adidas Cup showdown after clinching his £1.3m move from Kawasaki Frontale.
‌
But Celtic, who lost Kyogo Furuhashi in January and Nicolas Kuhn in a £17m exit to Como last week, are eager to add more goals with Royal Antwerp ace Michel-Ange Balikwisha a long term target.
‌
There's just tow weeks until the champions raise the curtain on a new season against St Mirren.
And Rodgers said: 'Any coach would love to have them in at the beginning, on the first day of pre-season, but we all know how the market works.
'There's a little period, and then there's another period to sign, and then it ramps up at the end.
‌
'Every coach will tell you that they want them in the first day of the season, but as long as they're here by the end of August.
'Obviously in some areas we would like them sooner.
'By the end of August we'll be able to see the squad that we have, and take it from there.
‌
'I think it's bringing goals to the squad. When you've just scored four goals, that always seems to be okay, but we lost an important player in January in Kyogo, who scored a lot of goals, and we've lost Nicolas Kuhn, a lot of goals again, and even Matt O'Riley last summer.
'Even though we scored a lot of goals last season, we still want more, and our ambition is to have more, so I think all across the front areas, we have to be active in order to give us that depth.
'We've still got a lot of work to do but the guys that are training and working with us are doing so well. You saw that today, and they're all developing their fitness and participating in the games for us.
‌
'I would expect us by the end of the window to have brought in players in certain areas of the pitch that we need to go through a really long season. But it's an exciting season for us.'
Arne Engels' penalty opened the floodgates against Eddie Howe's Toon before Johnny Kenny, Hjunjuun Yang and Liam Scales put the gloss on an emphatic victory.
But it was last year's player of the year Daizen Maeda who starred, playing a big part in the first and third goals, an electric performance on the left of a front three.
‌
The Japan ace has attracted interest from Brentford this summer and has yet to sign the new deal Celtic have tabled.
Rodgers added: 'I don't think there have been any developments on that, but he's a professional and his focus is very much on here.'
Meanwhile Rodgers reckons new boy Yamada can leave even Duracell bunny Maeda in his wake going by his stats.
‌
He said: 'His profile suits how he plays. He's one of the quickest players from the Japanese league - he's even quicker than Daizen and Kyogo in terms of statistics, and that's how we play, that speed in the top line.
'He gives that depth as well, so I'm really looking forward to seeing him come in and seeing what he can bring.
'All the Japanese players that we work with, they have intensity, they have fitness, and they have this momentum, this mentality to keep going, so we think he'll bring that, and hopefully we can develop him like we have the other players.'
‌
You can get all the news you need on our dedicated Rangers and Celtic pages, and sign up to our newsletters to make sure you never miss a beat throughout the season.
We're also on WhatsApp where we bring all the latest breaking news and transfer gossip directly to you phone. Join our Rangers community here and our Celtic community here.