It is approaching two years since Celtic last invested significant money in a new centre-forward, having dished out £9.5m to sign loan hero, Adam Idah, back in the summer of 2024.
Since then, Kyogo Furuhashi has departed, as too has Idah, with the stream of striker replacements having failed to catch fire over the last six months or so.
The free transfer arrivals of Callum Osmand and Kelechi Iheanacho have both been hampered by injury, while Shin Yamada – signed for just £1.5m – has already been shipped out on loan after failing to score in the first half of the season.
|
Celtic strikers – 25/26 |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Player |
Games |
Goals |
|
Kenny |
22 |
6 |
|
Iheanacho |
14 |
3 |
|
Cvancara |
9 |
1 |
|
Adamu |
5 |
1 |
|
Osmand |
3 |
1 |
|
Yamada |
11 |
0 |
|
Total |
64 |
12 |
The club’s luck hasn’t turned, even with Martin O’Neill now overseeing things, with the January captures of Tomas Cvancara and Junior Adamu not exactly going as planned thus far.
Why Celtic shouldn’t sign Cvancara or Adamu permanently
It had been a winter window dominated by talk of a new striker arrival at Parkhead, with the Hoops believed to have been interested in the Premiership’s leading scorer, Tawanda Maswanhise, among a raft of other targets.
A return for Kyogo from Birmingham City was also mooted, although the Hoops ultimately snapped up Cvancara on loan from Borussia Monchengladbach, prior to poaching Adamu from fellow Bundesliga side, Freiburg, on deadline day.
The pair, frustratingly, have since scored just two goals between them in 14 combined appearances in all competitions, with even left-back Kieran Tierney enjoying a more fruitful recent spell, with two in his last two games.
It is early days, of course, yet considering these were initial short-term deals, the expectation was that at least one of Cvancara and Adamu would hit the ground running, with the reality now seen in the fact that Daizen Maeda has finished the last two games as Celtic’s man through the middle.
Unsurprisingly, there have to be doubts over signing the pair permanently this summer, not least with Cvancara’s loan move including a reported £7m option to buy, a price tag he simply hasn’t justified on current evidence.
As for Adamu, the Austrian would cost around £4.3m by all accounts, with the champions already forking out a £420k loan fee to complete the deal at the close of the window.
That is £11m that Celtic simply can’t afford to waste, with the club’s current centre-forward woes perhaps sparking frustration at those they have let slip from their grasp.
Celtic already sold Adamu & Cvancara upgrade for just £1.4m
In truth, there should be little surprise that neither of Celtic’s new men have got going as yet, with Cvancara having notably scored just ten goals in all competitions since the start of 2023/24, prior to moving to Glasgow.
As for Adamu, the 24-year-old has only scored three Bundesliga goals across the last two-and-a-half seasons, with the Parkhead hierarchy having gambled on their form from 2022/23.
One man who has enjoyed a far more fruitful recent period, despite struggling somewhat in 2025/26, is Vakoun Bayo, the forgotten striker sold on for just £1.4m back in 2021.
The Ivorian – like Cvancara and Adamu – failed to succeed during his brief time in Scottish football, scoring only twice in 17 games, following his arrival in January 2019.
Like Joel Mvuka in the present day, he was firmly on the periphery across those first six months, the only one of Celtic’s four new signings to be omitted from their Europa League squad, while struggling to take his chance in the following season.
In the years since, however, the 29-year-old has been far more prolific, scoring 14 times in 26 games across a handful of spells at Belgian side Charleroi, while also netting 13 in 36 for Toulouse.
While he hasn’t scored this season in Serie A for Udinese, the “complete striker” – as hailed by former boss Tom Cleverley – was far more reliable than both Adamu and Cvancara across 2024/25, starring in England’s second tier with Watford.
Indeed, the 6 foot marksman scored ten league goals in the EFL Championship alone last term, more than both Adamu and Cvancara recorded in their entire time in Germany, netting seven and eight goals, respectively, across all fronts over a handful of seasons.
Although Bayo may well have flattered to deceive himself at Celtic, he has blossomed with far more regular game time since departing almost five years ago, with there perhaps a tinge of regret at moving him on for such a minimal fee.
As it is, he remains one of the underwhelming striker incomings at Parkhead of recent years, with both Adamu and Cvancara looking set to be the latest to join that disappointing pool.
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