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Dazzling Daizen runs the show for Celtic, but it’s Jota who steals the headlines.

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Image for Dazzling Daizen runs the show for Celtic, but it’s Jota who steals the headlines.

I think few things in the coming year are going to give me as much satisfaction as I got watching Jota put the ball in the net at the end of that game and then run to the Celtic supporters, obviously emotional, before turning away in tears at the end of it. That was a special Celtic moment. Tremendous.

On the podcast the other night, Joe McHugh and I had a little bit of a debate about whether or not I was over-sentimentalising the return of Jota and, in the summer, the potential return of Kieran Tierney.

And I don’t think I was.

I think both players have realised that this is where they want to be, that there’s no place like home. And Jota actually used that word today after the game. I know part of the emotion was just relief and joy at having gotten a goal after such a poor spell in his career. But it was scoring that goal in front of those fans that meant the world to him.

It’s easy to forget, in all the arguing we do over finances and overall levels of ambition and all the rest of it, that we are a magical club.

Sometimes the people who run Celtic don’t get the emotional moments the way we do. Those accountancy types never will.

But we, who do get it, savour moments like that at the end of the game today. They mean everything to us because we understand that, for just a moment, this wasn’t a guy playing for a pay check. This was a guy playing for us.

I was delighted for him. Absolutely delighted for him. And I was delighted for the fans who were at the game today and got to see that in person. Watching it on TV is never as good. It would have been a properly emotional moment to have been there to witness it. And for all the guys I know who go to away matches every second week, I was glad for them. I was glad for all of us, really.

Heading into the late stages of that game only 2-1 up, a lot of people wanted to praise Motherwell for holding us to that. They didn’t deserve any praise today. We absolutely outplayed them. We should have scored a few more. In fact, we did score a few more, and someone’s going to have to explain to me why a couple of them didn’t count. But in the end, that was about as comfortable as we could possibly have been. We’ve had some hard games up there. This was not one of them.

Obviously, Jota will steal the headlines. I think that’s a little bit unfair because Adam had a great game and scored another goal. Callum McGregor made his 500th appearance as a Celtic player, and that should be on the back pages of every newspaper in the land. He has been a magnificent servant, and I have no doubt that he’ll make it to 600 games and more beyond that. He is a true Celtic great.

But you know what? Today belonged to Daizen Maeda. Maeda was superb today with a goal and two assists. That was a match-winner’s performance. He is a huge player for us now. He has become central to everything good that we do, and we will miss him badly against Bayern Munich, just as we missed him badly against Villa. It helps that we have Jota to come in, but it’s not the same.

And on no account—no account—should we even consider moving Maeda into the middle. Because this guy plays superbly as an inside forward coming off the left. He’s having the best season of his entire career this year under Rodgers in this system. And we should not touch this system one bit.

If we move him into the middle, we’re weakening the team. So, if this is the secret fantasy of certain people in the Celtic boardroom, I advise them to think again. I strongly advise them to think again.

Left-sided Maeda is a superb threat.

If we put someone else out wide and move him into the middle, we’re losing all those assists and all those goals that we would otherwise have if we just bought a damn striker. Perhaps this isn’t clear to some people, but it should be.

So all in all, that was a good day today.

The three points were all that mattered, and the performance wasn’t necessarily something we needed to be overly concerned with. But the performance wasn’t in the least bit concerning anyway. It’s probably the most comfortable I’ve felt with a one-goal lead all season, and it never looked as if we would drop any points. That’s a credit to the way we played and the discipline and composure of this team.

In the aftermath, Rodgers was asked about tomorrow’s transfer deadline, and he confirmed, again, that we want a striker.

So as far as I’m concerned, a move for some left-sided attacker isn’t going to cut it at all. The manager has been crystal clear on this.

Now it’s up to those above him to deliver the goods. If they don’t, then this entire support should be loudly condemning them, results notwithstanding—because it’s the manager and the players who are paid to get those results, and they’re doing their job. The so-called geniuses who run our club had better start doing theirs.

Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images

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4 comments

  • Gerry says:

    Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see our game today for the first time in years. A variety of reasons for that, but absolutely delighted that firstly, we got the three points and that we had a few outstanding performers, in Idah, McGregor and buzzbomb Daizen.

    Even more unfortunate, ( I only have myself to blame) I put on Radio Clyde as BBC Scotland had the Sevco match live.
    Jeezo, the negativity from HK is even more apparent over the airwaves, than the columns you give us feedback on. Not a good listen whatsoever!

    Anyway, back to the transfer ( or lack of ) window and our board’s continued intransigence, or should I say, complete negligence, in this one.

    Our manager wants quality in, and apart from Jota, there are no others sighted on the horizon. Meanwhile, our CEO and others continue to play the failed fisherman lines, ie “the ones that got away!!!”

    It is looking like a familiar end to another uninspiring window and two fingers up at everyone that wants to see our club progress on EVERY front !

    Hopefully we are proven wrong !!!HH

  • Gerry says:

    Of course, I also meant to say! Delighted for Jota!
    Great to have you back !
    Boa sorte!

  • Brattbakk says:

    There were a lot of good performances today, I thought both full backs did really well, Idah and Jota and especially Maeda. I’m not letting the club off the hook but the thought of playing Maeda through the middle doesn’t scare me, he’s brilliant. We wouldn’t lose the goals and assists but what he offers defensively as a winger is what we’d lose. It’s a good problem to have, 3 wingers of that quality but until we get another striker in Maeda will likely cover in the middle. Scales came on at LB again, if we don’t sign anyone them Murray might become the back up for the rest of this season anyway

  • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

    Good three points after a tough old runaround in midweek !

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