Ryan Mmaee of Ferencvaros on Celtic’s radar, but do we really need another striker?

News emerging this morning is that Moroccan striker Ryan Mmaee of Ferencvaros is a potential target for Ange Postecoglu and Celtic.

The 24 year old frontman has scored 19 goals for the Hungarian champions with some impressive displays along the way.

The club have apparently undertaken extensive data analysis on the player as Ange Postecoglu feels we are in need of more firepower for the upcoming Champions League campaign.

Clearly Ange was impressed with what he saw of the player during our Europa League campaign.

Mmaee has been in good form this season and his versatility will appeal as he has experience of playing on the left side.

Prior to playing in Hungary, the Moroccan international had been plying his trade in the Belgian game with Standard Liege, with loan spells at Waasland Beveren, AGF and Cypriot club AEL Limassol.

How true these rumours are remains to be seen, I’m not sure we’re in need of another striker, with five on the books already in Kyogo, Giakoumakis, Maeda, Ajeti and Kenny.

Understandably, Ange is probably looking to offload Albian Ajeti after his unsuccessful stint with the club and he may see Mmaee as the ideal replacement.

However, Mmaee was a regular for Ferencvaros, if he was to come to Celtic, he would be dropping down the pecking order behind Kyogo, Giakoumakis and Maeda.

I’m not sure that would appeal to a 19 goal striker with regular game time up to now.

Having said that, Ange’s method of rotation may appeal to the Moroccan and the lure of the Champions league could also be an influencing factor.

This is one to watch, so we’ll just have to wait and see if it gains any traction.

In the meantime, the speculation surrounding Ko Itakura continues to grow, with another youth prospect from Manchester City, Taylor Harwood-Bellis now being mentioned as well.

Schalke are still not interested in paying the amount City want for Itakura.

When you take into account Ange’s Japanese connections and also the fact that there are already four players from his homeland at Celtic, a move to Glasgow may become very appealing to the Japanese international.

Mark Lawwell’s City Group connections may be the determining factor in getting this one over the line.

Taylor Harwood-Bellis was on loan at Stoke City last season in the Championship where he got decent game time, making 22 appearances in total.

Prior to that, the 6ft 2″ Centre-back was on loan at Anderlecht and Blackburn, making 35 appearances in total between the two clubs.

At 20 years of age, he seems to have decent experience and may be a decent option for Celtic. He is set to return to his parent club to find out whether or not he has a future there.

City may decide to loan him out again or sell him on.

Either way, we do not want to go down the road of getting players on loan from City again, developing them and then losing them at the end of their loan spells.

If we are serious about these players, then it needs to be a loan to buy option, or an outright purchase.

The days of filling our squad with loanees should be over if we are serious about title retention and progressing in Europe.

We all know that players who are on loan never fully commit to the club and this is a model we need to be moving away from.

If, as has been rumoured, Ange will be given £30 million to spend on players, then you would expect that this money will be spent on outright transfers, not loans.

For now, we need to get the Jota and Carter-Vickers deals over the line.

Then we can focus on bringing more additions in.