The start of Celtic’s competitive season is right around the corner.
A week on Sunday, the Hoops begin their Scottish Premiership title defence when they welcome St Mirren to Parkhead.
After that, they’ll travel to Pittodrie for a Scottish Cup Final rematch against Aberdeen, while there’s plenty more for supporters to get excited about throughout August, with an Old Firm derby at Ibrox and a Champions League play-off tie to come later in the month.
Thus, with the new season rapidly approaching, Brendan Rodgers is doubly eager to get his new recruits over the line.
Celtic's search for a new centre-forward
Ever since Kyōgo Furuhashi was sold to Stade Rennais for a reported fee of £10m in January, the Hoops have been in the market for a new striker.
Following last mid-week’s pre-season friendly victory over Stade Rennais, Rodgers stated that he wants “to add to our front line” having “lost a lot of goals” in recent months, given that Nicolas Kühn has also departed for Como for around £16.5m.
In terms of pure centre-forwards, Shin Yamada has arrived from Kawasaki Frontale for around £1.5m, so will challenge Adam Idah for the starting number nine spot, but Rodgers will still want more.
Mathias Kvistgaarden appeared to be their top target since January, but he has instead decided to join Norwich City from Brøndby for a reported fee of £6.9m, leaving the Scottish champions searching for an alternative.
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Well, Rodgers does have previous when it comes to unearthing unknown strikers as Celtic manager, namely signing Moussa Dembélé nine years ago, so could he be about to do something similar?
Could Celtic sign a highly-rated young striker?
As Celtic scour far and wide for a new striker, Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman claims they should go all in and sign Richard Kone from Wycombe Wanderers.
He believes, should he make the move to Glasgow, Kone “would thrive massively at that level” adding, given that Celtic “dominate games and create chances”, he would score plenty of goals.
Back in January, Luton Town had a £6m bid rejected by the Chairboys for Kone, according to Pete O’Rourke of Football Insider, likely to cost even more than that now.
To support this, a week ago, it was documented that Celtic have an interest in Kone, with the young marksman believed to be worth around £7m.
Speaking on CBS’ Morning Footy, Wycombe legend Adebayo Akinfenwa noted that “if Hollywood was going to have a script for a story, this would be it”, given that Kone arrived in England to represent Côte d’Ivoire at the Homeless World Cup in 2019.
He then represented Athletic Newham in the Essex Senior League, England’s ninth tier, for five years, before being scouted and signed by Wycombe in January 2024, following an extended trial.
Well, what a find this has proved to be, with the 22-year-old scoring 25 goals in 73 appearances for the Buckinghamshire-based EFL League One outfit, named both the division’s Player and Young Player of the Season, having netted 18 times in the league.
Let’s assess his statistics from League One last year to underline why he scooped up both accolades.
Goals
18
3rd
Shots
100
5th
Shots on target
40
5th
Shots per 90
3.28
3rd
Successful dribbles
44
16th
Big chances missed
16
6th
As the table notes, only two players, Charlie Kelman and Jay Stansfield, both of whom were playing for clubs who got promoted, scored more goals than Kone, while he ranked highly for every attacking metric included.
His performances certainly impressed writer Kai Watson, who labelled him a “mentality monster”, adding that “aggression, positioning and work rate” are amongst his strengths.
So why could he be a repeat of Dembélé’s arrival from 2016?
Well, before joining Celtic, the Frenchman had made just 64 senior appearances for Fulham, the vast majority of which had come at Championship level, so few could’ve forecast that he burst onto the scene as he did, scoring 32 goals during his first season at Celtic, five of which came in the Champions League.
Thus, there is certainly precedent for a young, inexperienced striker joining Celtic from the EFL and exploding into a top-class centre-forward.
If you’re not yet convinced by the déjà vu, listen to this; Kone’s non-league Athletic Newham are based on Atlético Madrid, they wear the same kit and their badge is nigh on identical, and with whom did Dembélé win La Liga? You guessed it!
Celtic now submit £1.5m bid to sign 17 G/A forward, they've had a response
The Hoops have made a formal approach for an attacker, who was regularly among the goals in the 2024-25 campaign.
ByDominic Lund
