Celtic strike gold with ‘phenomenal’ star

Is there a real title race in Scotland this year, without involving Rangers?

Celtic fought back from 2-1 down to beat Motherwell 3-2 at Parkhead on Sunday, with Daizen Maeda heading home a late winner, finding himself on the end of Michelangelo Balikwisha’s cross.

However, Brendan Rodgers’ side, who are yet to lose, are not at the top of the table, still two points behind unbeaten Heart of Midlothian after their latest winner in the Edinburgh derby; the top two face off in a huge clash at Tynecastle on October 26.

If Celts are to win a fifth consecutive Premiership title, which would be a 14th crown in 15 seasons, their attacking summer signings will be key – and not just Sebastian Tounekti.

Sebastian Tounekti’s debut at Celtic

In desperate need of attacking reinforcements, Celtic signed Tounekti from Hammarby for a fee of £5.2million on deadline day.

Many thought the club overpaid for the Tunisian international but, so far, he has impressed in the hoops.

The winger scored his first goal for the club against Partick Thistle in the League Cup, starting all three Premiership matches as well as two in the Europa League since his arrival.

So Tounekti is currently Rodgers’ first-choice option on the left flank, forcing last season’s top scorer Daizen Maeda to move to the right, with left-back Kieran Tierney calling him “a joy to play with” after the aforementioned victory at Firhill.

However, Celtic did indeed sign a striker for free this summer whose transfer value is estimated to be even higher.

Celtic’s prolific new striker

Bizarrely, by the time the transfer window closed, Celtic were left without a senior centre-forward, with Adam Idah having been sold to Swansea for around £7 million, while the club’s newest attempt to sign Kasper Dolberg, who had no interest coming, surprisingly did not happen.

So, with 24 hours to secure a free agent signing before the UEFA team registration deadline, the club snapped up Kelechi Iheanacho, only available because Sevilla agreed to terminate his contract, after he scored zero goals in La Liga for the Nervionenses.

The table below documents the Nigerian’s recent dip in form, which is why he has so far exceeded expectations.

As the table shows, since his emergence at Manchester City a decade ago, Iheanacho has only reached double figures in terms of goals in a single campaign twice, and that was in consecutive campaigns, featuring his best year ever, which remains 2020/21 during lockdown.

However, that could be about to change.

The Nigerian converted a stoppage-time winning penalty at Kilmarnock on his debut, then scored against Red Star in Belgrade and in the weekend’s win over Motherwell.

Upon his arrival in Glasgow, Rodgers, who had previously been his manager at Leicester, hailed him as a “phenomenal” talent in the past, while Jacek Kulig of Football Talent Scout called him a “prolific” goalscorer.

As a result, Transfermarkt estimates his current market value to be around €4.5 million (£3.9 million), while Tounekti’s current estimated value is just €4 million (£3.4 million), although it is rising.

Any Celtic striker, given the Hoops dominate every domestic game they play, will have plenty of opportunities to score plenty of goals, but the early signs are that signing Iheanacho was something of a masterstroke, given he could prove to be a bargain.