Celtic supporters may not have been very pleased with how the summer transfer window ended, but there was plenty of promising work done by the club up to when they signed Kelechi Iheanacho.
Some fans decided to boycott the opening 12 minutes of the 2-1 win over Kilmarnock last weekend. Podcaster John Dykes claimed that it was partly down to the lack of quality recruitment work and the club’s failure to qualify for the league phase of the Champions League.
Despite the concerns of the fanbase, Celtic were still able to muster up three points in their Scottish Premiership clash, thanks to a 96th-minute penalty from one of their new signings, Iheanacho.
The Nigeria international, who joined on a free transfer the day after the summer window officially slammed shut, was the 11th first-team signing made after the end of the 2024/25 campaign.
Brendan Rodgers and the recruitment team will be hoping that supporters will look at the window a little more favourably by the end of the season, if the players brought in kick on and deliver high-quality performances.
The concern, though, will be if they fail to really kick on and prove their worth on a consistent basis, as has been the case for winger Hyun-jun Yang.
Why Hyun-jun Yang is in an awkward position at Celtic
The South Korea international was signed from Gangwon FC for a fee of £2m in the summer of 2023 to bolster Rodgers’ options on both flanks in his first season back in Scotland.
Unfortunately, Yang has been unable to establish himself as a regular starter for the Scottish giants on the wing. He currently finds himself in an awkward position where he does not seem to be fully trusted by the manager.
In fact, the forward was reportedly close to a move to English Championship side Birmingham City on deadline day, only for the Blues to pull out of a deal because they were unwilling to wait for Celtic to finalise their own move for Sebastian Tounekti.
The Hoops, of course, signed Tounekti from Hammarby late on deadline day, but the timing of that move meant that they brought the Tunisia international in and Yang had to remain at Parkhead.
This has left the 23-year-old winger in a position where he knows that the club and Rodgers were willing to let him move on in the summer, yet he now has to stay until at least January.
Appearances
3
Starts
2
Unused substitute
2
Goals
0
Key passes per game
0.3
Big chances created
1
Assists
0
Dribbles completed per game
0.3
As you can see in the table above, Yang has already been an unused substitute in two of the opening five Premiership matches, failing to provide a goal or an assist in the three games he has featured in.
Ultimately, the South Korean attacker has never shown real consistency in his end product in the final third, with seven goals and nine assists in 71 appearances in all competitions, per Transfermarkt.
Yang has shown signs of improvement during his time at the club, progressing from one league goal in the 2023/24 campaign to five league goals last season. However, it has not been enough for him to establish himself as a star in Glasgow.
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It is incredibly early on in his Parkhead career, but summer signing Michel-Ange Balikwisha needs to ensure that he does not end up becoming the next Yang for Celtic on the wing.
Why Balikwisha could be the next Yang for Celtic
The Hoops swooped to sign the Belgian forward from Royal Antwerp for a fee of £5m during the summer transfer window to bolster their options at the top end of the pitch.
Balikwisha, like Yang, is a versatile winger who can play on the left or the right flank. He also showed some promise in the final third with his performances for his former club.
The 24-year-old flanker scored four goals and created seven ‘big chances’ in 12 starts in the Pro League for Royal Antwerp in the 2024/25 campaign, per Sofascore, which shows that he offered quality as both a scorer and a creator of goals in Belgium.
This is why Balikwisha, as Yang was when he arrived from Gangwon, is an exciting addition to the squad. However, he has yet to show any real drive at the top end of the pitch after two flat performances in the Premiership.
The right-footed winger has been thrown in at the deep end with starts against Rangers and Kilmarnock, playing on the left wing in the former and on the right in the latter, but failed to impress in either outing.
Minutes
65
58
Shots
0
0
Key passes
0
1
Big chances created
0
0
Dribbles completed
0/0
0/1
Crosses completed
0/1
1/2
As you can see in the table above, Balikwisha did not register a single shot on goal and only attempted one dribble, which he failed to complete, in over two hours of football in his first two appearances for the Scottish giants.
Motherwell midfielder Andy Halliday has been unimpressed with the winger. The experienced Premiership player said: “I think Balikwisha has started really, really slowly. I’ve never seen a winger turn down one versus one opportunities so much.
“It was exactly what I seen against Rangers and I thought it was the exact same at Kilmarnock at the weekend. I think he’s too passive in terms of getting the ball in one v one situations, turning and passing it back.”
You could put it down to the fact that he is settling into life at Celtic and may have been nervous to really attack those two games, but fellow new signing Tounekti stepped in for his debut against Kilmarnock and delivered four chances created and five dribbles completed, per Sofascore.
As Halliday put it, Balikwisha was too passive in both games and that is a worrying sign because that has been one of Yang’s biggest problems during his time at Celtic, averaging just 0.7 completed dribbles and 0.4 shots on target per game in the Premiership last season, per Sofascore.
The South Korea international’s Parkhead career reached a point where the club were willing to let him join Birmingham, in part because he has failed to asert himself on the pitch to be a consistent performer in the final third.
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Hopefully, Balikwisha’s first two appearances for the Hoops are not a sign of things to come, because he will need to offer far more at the top end of the pitch week-in-week-out to avoid becoming the next Yang in Glasgow.