This post is more of look back at my history of postings on the Huddleboard that led to a decision to try and do something with my love of watching football from across the globe and the posts span from 2020 through to 2023, some of those players I’ve mentioned in the Celtic 4 part series as players I still like.
The point in this is to look back at players I’ve liked and if you choose to you can see where they are now, a few have done quite well and a few have stagnated or fallen off from where they were.
The key thing at anytime is just because a player moves and is deemed by some as a success or failure at one club doesn’t automatically mean they’ll be good or bad for the next club. Anyone who pays the slightest bit of attention will have seen players they know that are good make moves to a new team, maybe a new league and for whatever reason it doesn’t work and they’ll have seen plenty of players who haven’t impressed at one club who have gone on and been outstanding at others.
Diego Forlan was always one that stuck out for me. He got hammered at times during his spell at Manchester United, but if you cared enough to watch him in many games you could see that the ability was there, it just wasn’t quite clicking for him so it was of no shock when he went to La Liga and tore it up for 7 years and finished with just short of a 1 in 2 goalscoring record for Villareal and At.Madrid. Sticking with the same team Alexis Sanchez was a player who had shown he had great ability at Arsenal, and I honestly thought Man United had won a watch when they managed to get him in a swap deal, but it wasn’t to be. So it just shows how much value there is in having players who fit into your environment.
Gary Hooper springs to mind for Celtic as a player who showed his ability with us, but when he left for me he made a poor choice taking the move to Norwich because they were a team who were going to be up against it more often than not, and as good as he was the reason he thrived with us was because he had lots of movement around him and good delivery coming his way. He was never going to get that at Norwich and by the end of the 13/14 season he had sat in a team who didn’t create much and rarely scored, ending the league with 28 goals in 28 games.
So I’m not saying all these guys would have been a success at Celtic, even the ones who have went on to do really well. The biggest thing I’ve learned is working out who fits your team both on and off the pitch is vital for both parties. Getting it right isn’t easy, and that’s why it’s vital to have good scouts, but also people who are good with people involved in the recruitment processes because getting to know a player as well as you can in the small windows of opportunity that you get is vital.
Anyway I leave you to look over the screenshots below and a few comments that I’ve added under each image………….
The above image is one that contains a man who eventually made his way to Celtic courtesy of Ange Postecoglou. The one and only Mushroom Bhoy Kyogo. I’d seen highlights of him after reading an interview with Iniesta who was talking about Japan and the J-League and Kyogo was the player who he said stood out for him, so i sat and watched all his goals from 2019 and 2020 where he mainly played on the left side of the attack and what a player. The only question at the time and looking at as a fan, not as a scout was would it translate if you moved him to Europe. Well we have an answer, and not only is a he a cracking player but he is one of many signings made in the early days of the Postecoglou reign who came to the club and totally embraced it.
The other players I like in this are Scamacca, not shocked it didn’t work at West Ham because he was playing in a team who were never going to use him in the way he is used now to great success for Atalanta.
Botman to me at this time was as close as I’d seen to Van Dijk. I don’t think he’ll quite hit that level but he has all the skills needed to play for a top side if he recovers from his current injury.
Ignore Ben Davies…. Please lol
Kyogo Furahashi – Celtic FC
The one that really stood out for me here and is one where it maybe hasn’t quite worked is Daryl Dike who West Brom spent over 8 million pounds on. The raw materials were there but like many of the young American attackers I’d question the move to West Brom if it wasn’t for the fact he was familiar with Valerie Ismael, but he was sacked around 6 weeks after Dike signed and I think that seriously hampered DIke and he’s not really progressed in the way he could have.
Daryl Dike – WBA
2 real thoughts on this Hordor moved on to Greece with Panathaniakos but it’s clear the injuries he had took their toll on him. Johnny Cardoso….. He recently moved to Real Betis and he’s developed massively. A very good player and if he continues to develop his game he’ll go well beyond Betis quickly.
Johnny – Real Betis
The above was around the time we were being heavily linked with O’Riley and I had some footage of him and Scott Twine. I really liked both players and O’Riley has obviously proven his worth for Celtic. Twine has shown himself to be a good Championship level player, but again I think his career will be defined by the teams he chooses because he needs to play in a specific role to really get what he does best on the big green dancefloor.
Matt O’Riley – Celtic FC
3 real memories from this 11. The 2 central defenders for me where huge standouts and a lot of teams missed the boat and a great chance to pick up players who will have a much greater value. Hancko is now likely to move on from Feyenoord for over 30 million and Ndayishimiye was really good when he was in Turkey and is proving himself to be good value for the 11 million Nice spent to take him to France at the start of 2023.
Zian Fleming is the other one, as it says I couldn’t quite decide where I stood on him but having seen him play for Millwall I think he still has a better move in him to a team who wants a physical option, and his spell at Millwall will only have added another layer to how he uses his strength in forward areas as it’s a lot easier to be physically dominant in the Eredivisie than it is in the Championship.
Zian Flemming / Millwall FC
This post was looking at the J-League on the back of Postecoglou joining us and trying to see who he might look to add as part of his rebuild. So again the obvious ones who did join are Hatate and Daizen who have done good jobs for the club. Matsao surprises me looking back because he had wonderful technical ability, but when watching video it can be hard to judge a players mental strengths and maybe his lack of progression is less about his ability and more about other factors.
Daizen Maeda & Reo Hatate – Celtic FC
This one is a sore one because I’d seen two players in the Eerste Divisie in the Netherlands in recent years who really jumped out. Wieffer and Dalinga (who I’d mentioned in another post that I cannot find). Wieffer signed for Feyenoord for a few hundred thousand pounds and Dalinga went to Toulouse for just over 2 million pounds. Wieffer is now being scouted by most of the top clubs in Europe and Dalinga has been a good striker for Toulouse, having hit double figures for them in the last 2 seasons in Ligue 1.
Mats Wieffer – Feyenoord
Not much that I think on this. Was shocked in some ways Chelsea signed Fofana, but then they can afford to spend millions on players to then loan them out for years on end.
Kouame is one that I liked but I’m not sure what’s happened since he moved to Spain. In the few games I’ve seen of Cadiz he hasn’t played badly, not outstanding either but when I look at his stats and game time it’s hard to see why he’s not playing a bit more.
Hove is at Gronigen and played ok in his first season despite them being relegated, and this season he has been a vital part of getting them back up to the Eredivisie so he’s getting games and next season will probably be the clearest indictor of where he is.
Johan Hove – FC Groningen
Obviously is now part of the Red Bull Group, having joined Salzburg. I can’t say for certain but a few people who are fairly reliable with information on Celtic told me that there was a time where this move was very much possible. Why it didn’t happen I do not know but a huge opportunity missed in my opinion.
Oscar Gloukh – Red Bull Salzburg
We were linked with 2 of these 3 at some point after this. I can’t say I’ve followed them all that much since this post. Cheddira was eventually bought by Napoli but has been out on loan at Frosinone. Aziz went to China on loan but is no back in Portugal and Garcia is still at AEK and continues to have a good scoring record.
Levi Garcia – AEK Athens
The posts above again have a few players who have went on to do ok. A few who are still where they are and a few are mentioned as options in the Celtic 4 part serious. Mikautadze and Gouveia. The one that again stands out or me is another central defender in Sangante. He was in Ligue 2 at the time and was having a really strong season, and now he’s regularly linked with moves to top leagues.
Arouna Sangante – Le Harve
Well that’s a little walk through my past. It’s by no means my finest work. I didn’t ever expect it to be anywhere but on the Huddleboard. There are also a lot of posts missing, and a lot where I have looked at players just after we’ve signed them and done reports on what I’ve found so if you want to read those then feel free to go explore if you have a login.
To finish where I started the only thing you can say for certain is what a player has done. On a more professional level I’d probably have to explain how I seen these players fitting to Celtic, but at the time they were just me having some fun writing about players I liked. Now as we move on with reports on this site it’ll be about expanding on that and hopefully improving my education in this area and giving anyone who cares to read it the sort of details they want to see. So if you have any thoughts, feedback or comments you would like to make then feel free to ping me on Twitter (X) or add comments in the box below.
Next post will be up in 10 to 14 days as I have a short break planned and I also hope to announce some new content that will be based on Celtic very soon.
In the meantime enjoy the Euros if you are watching it and thanks again for reading.
RH