GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - DECEMBER 29: Kyogo Furuhashi of Celtic celebrates scoring his team's third goal during the William Hill Premiership match between Celtic FC and St. Johnstone FC at Celtic Park on December 29, 2024 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Yesterday, David Faulds from The Celtic Star published an article about Kyogo, in which he said that nobody should be taking satisfaction in Kyogo’s struggles.
I wholeheartedly agree with him on that sentiment. I haven’t seen too many people doing it, but I’m sure there are some out there who are happy to see that he hasn’t made a splash. It’s a very short-sighted attitude.
It helps us if players who leave this club go on to bigger and better things. Take Matt O’Riley, who’s struggling right now at Brighton. I am sure that, aside from getting a whopping transfer fee for him, we also inserted a big sell-on clause. It is in our best interest that Matt does well there, moves on, and makes us even more money.
But it’s also satisfying to see players we’ve developed succeed on a bigger stage. I’m not necessarily sure Rennes represents that, but it will be nice to see Kyogo go to France and become a star player.
It also helps with our credibility. Players who come here know that we can develop them into better footballers and move them on. And clubs who buy them know they can pay top dollar for our players and get what they paid for. That’s very important. So anyone sniggering over Kyogo’s perceived failure should have a long think about what it is they’re laughing at and how it impacts Celtic.
I wrote a piece on Kyogo when he moved and again after he picked up his shoulder injury, where I said that we probably sold him at the right time. That injury had been hanging over us like the Sword of Damocles for a long time. But Rennes signed him after putting him through a full medical. They knew about the injury, and it wasn’t a deal-breaker. So even if it turned out to be serious, it wouldn’t have reflected badly on us.
I’m not necessarily saying that it’s bad for us if Kyogo doesn’t play for Rennes, any more than it might be bad for us if Matt O’Riley doesn’t succeed at Brighton. But people should be taking note of what’s happened to these two so far. They should also be looking at what happened to Jota after he left the club. And the ones who should be paying attention aren’t other clubs or managers—it’s the players and their agents, the ones who can’t wait to move them on.
It’s high time certain players stop listening to agents who try to convince them that the grass is greener elsewhere. Yes, there’s more money out there, absolutely.
But if you’re a player who puts a premium on actually playing football, there’s an obvious danger in an agent trying to get you a move just so he can claim a chunk of the transfer fee. By now, it should be self-evident that leaving this club doesn’t necessarily mean going on to bigger and better things.
Pointing that out isn’t mocking these players, and it’s not wishing them ill. It’s just reality. Celtic is a massive club. You’re guaranteed to play in front of 60,000 fans every week, and if you play well, they’ll love you like no fans anywhere else will. Leaving too soon doesn’t always end well. Players can’t just go somewhere and expect to hit the ground running like they did here.
One thing I’ve written about recently is how our system makes a lot of players look better than they are. I used Maeda as an example. He fits into this Celtic side perfectly because Ange signed him for an all-out, aggressive, attack-minded team. Rodgers has tweaked things slightly, but the central philosophy hasn’t changed—Celtic still play aggressive, front-foot football, and Maeda fits that style like a hand in a glove.
The same was true for Matt O’Riley. The same is true for Nicolas Kuhn right now. But take these guys out of this system and put them in a team that plays a different way, and there’s no guarantee they’ll succeed.
There’s no guarantee they’ll even play every week. That’s got nothing to do with the level of opposition—it’s about team shape, structure, and playing style.
And I’ll tell you this: agents don’t care about any of that.
A lot of these guys just want to move their players on and bank the money. Whether or not their clients go on to successful careers is irrelevant to them. One of the most egregious examples of this was Jota’s move to Saudi Arabia. If the only selling point was the money, his agent had no business advising him to make that move. It nearly derailed his career completely.
The worst part? Agents don’t pay any price when they make mistakes like that. They don’t suffer any consequences.
More often than not, they end up with even more players signing up with them, chasing that payday. Some of those players won’t do well out of it either—except financially. And for some, that’s enough. For a player at the end of his career, fair enough. But for someone as young as Jota was when he moved, his agent should have been thinking beyond the quick buck.
But they never do. The whole game is based on short-term thinking now. Even our own club has a short-term transfer policy, but at least ours works. The policy agents have—moving certain players on every couple of years—only fills their pockets.
It doesn’t help the footballers, and hopefully, those still at the club who think the grass is greener elsewhere take a moment to think it through. Because it’s not necessarily so. And they can ask some of their former teammates about that.
Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images
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James it’s sometimes 60,000 fans every other week.Sometimes it’s against away teams with 7,000 fans and sometimes on plastic pitches.
I know that players have moved to better leagues with more money and so far has not worked out.
But I am afraid we will always be a stepping stone to better leagues with more money.
Agents can only suggest a move to anyone on their books, they cannot enforce it, and it’s down to the player himself to decide on what is the best course of action. So blaming agents isn’t the full story. Are agents greedy, you better believe it, that’s why they do what they do, they are in it for the money and if they have a player with the same desires as them it’s a marriage made in heaven. I’m sure they all dangle carrots in front of their charges, why not, it is part of their duty to inform the player if he has someone sniffing about him, that’s life, their life.
We can only hope that the players we have will not have their heads turned easily and that they will think long and hard about the consequences of moving on. If they see other players who’s dreams of stardom elsewhere have had a negative impact on their careers, then that can only be good for the the club. However, it’s a constant merry go round and nothing is guaranteed during a short footballing career.
It’s a strange situation for me as I can’t think of many players who have left Celtic & actually achieved there perceived potential.
Please correct me if there are more but the only ones that are standing out in my head is Big Virgil, Starfelt in Spain, Frimpong & maybe Ajer?
KT, Jota, Kyogo (so far), MOR (so far), Edouard, Dembele, Juranovic & Patrick Roberts were all exceptional for us but drifted off to very little fan fare following. KT is probably harsh to include because of Injuries but it’s still a great player of ours who has struggled after.
Kyogo will take his chance when it comes at Rennes, it’s too early to right him off there. We should definitely want him to do well for the reasons you mention and he probably will. O’Riley is a bit different, Brighton are a really good side and they bought 5 other guy for more money than they paid for MOR so he’s not their marquee signing, it’s an amount they’re happy to pay for a squad player. He is capable of getting a regular game for them but it’s a big challenge. What Brighton class as Matt being successful is probably different to what people up here expect. Time is on his side, unlike Kyogo.
Unfortunately we are a development club, we do need to sell players at a profit, wealso need to sell before a player will deteriorate and lower his value.
Kyogo & O’RILEY probably complimented each other, sometimes these type of players are great for a club, once they are seperated then it can be difficult to establish yourself elsewhere, as that bond no longer exists.
O’RILEY had a very bad injury in his 1st match, it may be some time before he gets back to any type of fitness.
Agents should be shown the door unless the player has requested a move, The club need to speak to the player of any options, also give the player a cooling off period, that way a player is not rushed by a money grabbing Agent.
Whilst a player is in contract, only he should approach the club if he desires to move on, Agents can then be summoned by the club to discuss the players next move if the club are happy to let them leave.
Agents have to much say in player matters, they unsettle players only in the effort to gain from Any sale.
Agents should be under strict control, something like insider trading law.
Ah don’t think loyalty these days in most cases, is anywhere near how it was in previous decades. Can understand a player wanting tae test himself. Or It could just simply be down tae a player gettin itchy feet and wanting tae try a different country, or set up. And if they’re the kind of player who can make big money as well, that’s a plus. Changed days.
I think the most important area for us to be concerned about is agents’ influence on Academy players. Most of the higher profile departures Academy from Celtic in recent years have not found obvious success elsewhere. Perhaps, they have earned more money and that is a decisive factor.
Maybe Celtic should be looking at ensuring elite Academy prospects are not left until their existing contract is due to expire in a few months before being offered new and better terms. This is the real area of concern. The selling on of players once they develop is part of the Celtic trading model, but not having players who have been invested in for over ten years even reach that starting point suggests that the Academy system has to be properly evaluated.
Cal-Mac and James Forrest prove that you can have a very fine career all your days at Celtic…
THE – GRASS – AIN’T – ALWAYS – GREENER – ON – THE – OTHER – SIDE !!!!!!
The guy is gone, who cares if he sits on the bench every week. The manager who signed him is gone, maybe the new manager doesn’t fancy him. He can console himself with the wads of cash he got for signing on with them. He clearly didn’t go to improve as a player, the French league is shit apart from PSG.
It’s a short career it’s aged but then isn’t that the same for probably the majority of people in society. Not many have jobs for life in this ever changing workplace, not like the past unless in many case you come from the hun class and in that world some are privileged from the start.
I dare say many players will consider the higher wage to provide for their families with a bigger house, etc, and a mortgage probably paid off. If the dollar is flashed in front of their eyes priories other than football take over sadly but invariably they move into other modes of employment when football has left them behind.
Still think one of the best things we could do is improve and increase our wage structure