40 goals would be amazing for Celtic’s Japanese Bhoy … but the best might be still to come.

Last night on the podcast, we had a brief chat about Daizen Maeda and his chances of hitting the 40-goal mark.

Coming out of the weekend’s game and learning that he had reached the 30-goal milestone, I felt he had passed a psychologically significant point. That’s because there’s a generation of our fans who probably aren’t used to seeing a Celtic striker score 30 goals in a season. It doesn’t happen with the same regularity as it used to, so I think it’s a major milestone for any forward who plays for us to hit that magic number.

What I hadn’t really thought about was that there’s another magic milestone—40 goals. Until ACSOM highlighted it yesterday, I had no idea how few of our players had actually hit that mark in a single campaign. It’s a credit to Maeda that we can even see circumstances in which he could join that elite group.

Right now, he has 17 goals in his last 17 games. He would actually have to improve on that rate to reach 40, as he has nine games left and needs 10 more goals.

But imagine if he does it—imagine a player who, in the space of 26 matches, manages to score 27 times. It’s a target you’d love to see him hit, but it’s also a scary one because a player who can do that is certainly not going to go unnoticed by clubs elsewhere.

The truly amazing thing to consider is this—had it not been for Maeda playing out wide for most of the season, he might already be there or thereabouts. He’s been so potent when played through the middle that you can only imagine how many goals he’d have racked up had he been deployed centrally for the whole campaign.

It is Larsson’s 53-goal season (done in 50 games) that automatically comes to mind.

A player in that kind of form really does deserve to be compared to the King of Kings. And for the first time since Larsson left, you can imagine us having a player capable of doing something on that level.

Of course, the thing with the King of Kings was that he could do it with real consistency. A 30-goal season was no problem for him. He started with 19 goals in his first season, but that was just a warm-up. In his second season, he scored 38. In his third campaign he was well on his way to something similar when he suffered that horrendous leg break in Lyon. He played only 13 times in that third season but still scored 12 goals. The following year, having come back from that injury looking—if possible—an even better player, he hit his legendary 53 in 50 matches.

The season after that? A relatively quiet one for Henrik. In 47 games, he only scored—and I say that with the deepest irony—35 times. The season after that, he got 44 in 51 games. And in his final campaign, as sad as we all were, he still scored another 41 in 58 matches.

That’s the kind of illustrious company Maeda would be in if he had played this full season as our central striker. The question is: does he stay, and can he do it all over again? If he stays, I would bet yes.

He’s on 59 Celtic goals now. If he gets the 10 more that he needs to hit 40, another season like that would put him in the 100-goal club—an extraordinary achievement considering how long he’s been here.

Thirty goals in 43 games this season—those are already Larssonesque numbers and he has a chance to do even better. If he reaches 100 by the end of next season, then the comparisons aren’t as crazy as they might sound.

Additionally, it’s worth pointing out that he also has 25 assists for Celtic in all competitions. So if we’re talking about overall goal contributions, not just goals, he’s already well on his way. Nine of those assists have come this season, which just goes to show how phenomenal he has been and how critical he is to our success, both domestically and in Europe.

Seventeen in 17 is impressive, but it will be even more so if he can get the 10 goals he needs in the nine fixtures left to hit the 40 mark. Because that is now the psychological watermark he should be aiming for.

That’s the next big milestone he should be looking to hit.

But there’s more, of course. That 100 goals should be well within his reach next season … and another 40 goal campaign. That changes the whole conversation about where he belongs in Celtic’s pantheon of great finishers.

His importance to this team has now been fully realised by everyone at the club. And I hope to God they get him tied down to a brand new, long-term deal. Because he will be the next Celtic player to score 100 goals. He will be the next Celtic player to post back-to-back seasons of 30-plus goals. He may even elevate himself into that elite group of players who complete a season with a goal-a-game average.

And that’s such a rare and outstanding achievement that even the King of Kings—despite all his undisputed, formidable talents, despite the fact we knew we were watching a genuinely world-class player in the Scottish Premiership—only managed it once. That’s how special it is.

Could it really happen? A 40-goal campaign this season, followed by a 50-goal campaign next? Where would that leave Maeda in the pantheon of greats? Where would that place him among the best we’ve ever watched in a Celtic shirt?

If I were picking my all-time Celtic 25-man squad, I’d already be hard-pressed to leave him out of it. But if he hits 100 goals and does it next season with another stellar campaign, then everyone is entitled to ask where he ranks against the Suttons, the Hartsons, and the rest? One thing is for sure—he’ll leave the Kyogos, the Dembélés, and the Édouards trailing in his wake.

Maybe it’s too early to say all this. Maybe I’m getting overexcited, letting my enthusiasm carry me away. But by the end of the season, we’ll know whether it’s an exaggeration or not. By the end of the season, we’ll know whether he’s made the grade. Because by then, the stats won’t lie—he’ll either hit 40 or he won’t.

Because I’ll say it again; to do it, he has to better the scoring rate since February that has even made this conversation possible. Seventeen goals in 17 games—he now needs 10 in the last nine, and that would mean 27 goals in 26 matches since we started playing him as the central striker.

That’s a terrifying number. That’s the kind of number that, for everyone, will render the conversation about “best since Larsson” utterly redundant.

And a guy who can do that? If he carries that form into next season, we won’t just be talking about the best since Larsson. We’ll be having a whole new conversation about where he belongs in Celtic’s all-time greats list.

And I dearly hope we get to have it.

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