Celtic were heading toward yet more misery in this turbulent season at Parkhead, with the Scottish champions mere seconds away from a swift Scottish Cup exit on Saturday evening.
It’s been a campaign of Champions League qualifying disaster and League Cup final embarrassment, with the weekend clash looking set to be a new nadir for the Glasgow giants.
A moment of magic was needed, and up stepped new man Junior Adamu, with the Austrian striker cleverly backheeling Sebastian Tounekti’s pull-back into the bottom corner, sparking delirium – and plenty of relief – instead Celtic Park.
Question marks surround the club’s spate of late January signings, but the 2-1 win over Dundee marked the perfect way for Adamu to get going, with the centre-forward department certainly far stronger than it was just a matter of weeks ago.
Indeed, Martin O’Neill‘s only real conundrum is deciding on who should lead the line from the start, with the on-loan Freiburg star set to do battle with fellow Bundesliga import, Tomas Cvancara.
Cvancara vs Adamu – who should lead the line for Celtic?
Saturday’s nervy narrow victory saw Cvancara again given the nod, with the towering Czech marksman having already lodged a goal and an assist in recent weeks, amid an encouraging start in Scottish football.
The 25-year-old’s impact was limited last time out, it must be said, having fed off scraps for much of the evening, although when he did receive the ball, his link-up play was impressive, with the Hoops simply needing to adjust to having a different profile of striker through the middle.
Likened to Chris Sutton by O’Neill himself, there are shades of Manchester United’s £74m striker, Benjamin Sesko, about Cvancara, with the on-loan Borussia Monchengladbach man possessing that lanky, somewhat ungainly physique, albeit while posing a real handful with his surprising speed and innate aerial ability.
In Manchester, Sesko’s role has been limited to something of an impact player off the bench of late, and perhaps that could be the eventual outcome for Cvancara, perhaps morphing into the Giorgos Giakoumakis to Adamu’s Kyogo Furuhashi.
Indeed, it is Adamu who more fits the mould of Celtic’s recent centre-forward styles, operating as a more agile and mobile number nine, with that ability to drift wide or drop deep to influence proceedings.
Like Cvancara, recent years haven’t been kind to the 24-year-old, although his prior work in Austria is reason for encouragement, racking up 34 goals and assists in 84 games for Red Bull Salzburg, alongside 37 goal involvements in 49 games for FC Liefering.
With one in one now in Glasgow, the jersey could be Adamu’s to lose before too long. Elsewhere, meanwhile, a man of Parkhead past is emerging as an even bigger talent than both men, it could be argued.
Celtic already sold a bigger talent than Adamu
Celtic are swiftly making up for lost time following an abject summer of recruitment, having been left with a striker department that included the unproven trio of Johnny Kenny, Shin Yamada and Callum Osmand.
That pool of forwards was a far cry from the days of Kyogo and Giakoumakis in their pomp, with Ange Postecoglou having been blessed with two genuinely elite strikers, both of whom offered different attributes and qualities.
Under the Aussie’s watch, Kyogo scored 54 times in just 83 games, while having played second fiddle, Giakoumakis scored 26 times from 57 outings, albeit while starting just 22 times.
The Greek powerhouse was then replaced by a “better version” in the form of Oh Hyeon-gyu, in the view of Frank McAvennie, with the Korean arriving as the new centre-forward understudy in January 2023.
What followed was something of a forgettable 18 months or so, however, with Oh’s game time particularly hampered in the second half of 2023/24, following the loan capture of Adam Idah.
In all, his 47 games for the Hoops yielded just 12 goals – seven of which came in his first 21 outings – yet he proved even less effective than Giakoumakis at displacing Kyogo, with his role diminishing even further following Brendan Rodgers’ arrival in the dugout.
A £3m switch to Genk proved the eventual outcome in the summer of 2024, and in truth, the 24-year-old hasn’t looked back since, leaving Rodgers and Co looking a little silly considering Celtic’s centre-forwards woes in the years since.
|
Oh – 25/26 stats |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Competition |
Games |
Goals (Assists) |
|
Pro League |
20 |
6 (3) |
|
Europa League |
8 |
3 (0) |
|
Europa League Q |
2 |
1 (0) |
|
Croky Cup |
2 |
0 (0) |
|
Super Lig |
1 |
1 (1) |
|
Total |
33 |
11 (4) |
Oh’s time in Belgium saw him net 22 times in 73 games, earning a high-profile move to Turkish giants Besiktas in the most recent transfer window, joining for a reported fee of around £10m.
Like Adamu, the physical forward is only one game into his time in Istanbul, although his debut bow proved even more impressive, with one goal and one assist in the weekend draw with Antalyaspor.
The new man’s strike had been a sensational overhead kick, marking a fine way to endear himself to his new club, ensuring he’s now up to seven league goals in all this season – more than Adamu has achieved across his entire stint in Germany.
There might remain an element of frustration that Celtic moved on from Oh so swiftly, and so cheaply, with the early signs suggesting he could outshine both Cvancara and Adamu over the next six months or so.
Celtic flop must never start for the club again after Adamu signing
This Celtic flop should not start another game this season after Junior Adamu joined the club in the winter window.
