Nicholson and the Celtic Board’s Master Maeda Summer Plan If We Win the League… Sell Him and Pretend It’s Ambition
Aodhán Ó Conchobhair On October 20th, 1997, in Taishi, Osaka, Japan, Daizen Maeda was born.
And somewhere in the distance, a football probably bounced off a hospital wall at 100mph before baby Daizen attempted an overhead kick into the maternity ward ceiling.
Because nobody normal scores that goal in that game… and then immediately goes back to pressing centre-halves like the match is still in the opening five minutes.
And before anyone suggests his energy comes from adapting to Scottish scran, let me stop you there immediately.
This man is absolutely not fuelled by Blue Lagoon half-battered pizzas and sausage suppers.
At one point on Sunday James Tavernier genuinely looked like he wanted to turn around, point at Maeda and ask one of his teammates if they fancied having a go instead.
We may need to start having difficult conversations now.
Not about whether Maeda is important.
We already know that.
The real conversation is this:
What exactly is Celtic’s plan when the rest of the football world finally catches up to what we already know?
Because that process may already have started.
The Boardroom’s Annual “Right, Who Are We Selling This Time?” Meeting
This summer could change everything.
Because while Celtic and the majority of Scottish football have always appreciated Daizen Maeda, the wider football world may only just be catching up.
Japan is building something seriously impressive heading towards the World Cup.
Technically excellent. Tactically intelligent. Relentlessly athletic.
And unlike England, there seems to be less obsession with “winning the tournament on paper” every two years before another emotional ITV montage before a big game and getting pumped out as usual.
Japan already showed their quality by beating England recently, and as a Scottish or Irish football fan, watching England lose at football still heals parts of your soul life simply cannot reach.
Maeda feels absolutely perfect for tournament football.
His pressing alone changes games.
At club level, teams spend weeks preparing for him and still can’t cope properly. In international football, where preparation time is shorter and tactical familiarity weaker, he becomes even more dangerous.
Then there’s the versatility.
Wide left. Through the middle. Counter-attacking. Pressing triggers.
He does everything.
And if Japan goes deep into the tournament while Maeda performs the way we know he can, the attention will become impossible to ignore.
The attention is probably already there after Sunday.
You don’t score overhead kicks in a Glasgow Derby like Sunday’s and stay hidden for very long.
At this point there are probably Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A sporting directors watching clips of him in Michael Nicholson’s office whilst he quietly sits in the corner asking if anyone would like a tea or coffee as they all discuss how much they can rinse us for this time.
If Maeda has a big summer, you just know sections of the Celtic board will already be calculating transfer figures before the tournament even ends.
The boardroom lights are flickering on.
Someone whispering “player trading model” into the darkness.
And honestly, part of me fears they’d sell Maeda for £25 million before replacing him with Calvin Miller, Tawanda Maswanhise, or Danny Armstrong while telling supporters it represents “excellent succession planning”.
Because Celtic’s modern obsession with downgrading quality while somehow calling it evolution genuinely needs studied academically at this point.
cough cough Liam Scales.
To be fair though…
He gets a pass this week after Sunday.
Reluctantly.
From Osaka to Parkhead
This is the key point for me.
There is no replacement for Daizen Maeda.
Not really.
You can structurally replace players like Engels or Nygren if they leave. They’re excellent footballers, but profiles like that exist across Europe.
Maeda is different.
Because his value goes beyond goals or assists.
His pressing transforms Celtic in Europe.
His movement protects the entire team structure, allowing others little moments to recover physically while he somehow continues sprinting about like the match has only just kicked off.
Perhaps most importantly now, his leadership within this squad feels enormous.
You can see younger players feeding off his intensity.
Honestly, if Celtic could somehow clone Maeda’s pressing habits across every winger in the academy system, it would probably be worth more than most transfer fees.
Imagine the next generation of Celtic talent learning directly from him every single day.
That kind of influence becomes invaluable long-term.
Especially because Celtic increasingly look like a side whose identity is built around intensity and aggression rather than simply technical superiority.
There’s another uncomfortable reality here too.
Maeda might soon become the only Japanese player left at the club.
Hatate, at times recently, has looked somewhere between frustrated, exhausted and like somebody being reminded he is being paid to play.
Even his cameo against Rangers somehow looked grumpy.
It’s not like I massively trust the Celtic scouting team to identify another player capable of replacing Maeda anyway.
I’m still waiting on proper replacements for Kyogo, O’Riley and Kuhn.
To be fair, they somehow replaced Tierney with… Tierney.
And Jota with…
…well, Jota.
So maybe they accidentally know what they’re doing.
But I still reserve the right to panic.
Maeda’s Future: One More Season…
Here’s the reality.
The main reason Celtic are still genuinely in with a chance of winning this league title is Daizen Maeda.
Yes, over the course of the season he’s had frustrating moments.
Yes, his finishing can occasionally resemble somebody attempting a volley during lunchtime football at school, only for it to go sailing into the bushes.
But if Celtic win this title, nobody is going to care about isolated misses in November or heavy touches in February.
They’ll remember the overhead kick against Rangers.
That goal already belongs somewhere in the conversation of greatest derby goals this club has ever seen if not the greatest.
Larsson’s chip
Nakamura at Parkhead.
And now Daizen Maeda is doing acrobatics in the air.
It’s crazy because, forgotten in all this since he has been here in 2021, I can’t remember him attempting anything like that.
And that’s exactly why this summer feels so dangerous.
Because from a football perspective, keeping Maeda may genuinely be more valuable than any transfer fee Celtic could realistically receive.
Take him out of this side, and the intensity drops immediately.
The fear factor changes.
The pressing weakens.
The emotional identity of the team changes completely.
And deep down, I think everybody knows it.
Including Michael Nicholson.
Which is precisely why I’m already terrified about what happens next.
In his post-match interview he said he was lucky. I think everyone in the stadium that witnessed that were the lucky ones.
Thank you, Daizen.
Key Takeaways
- Daizen Maeda’s unique skill set and pressing ability make him invaluable to Celtic, and he stands out in today’s competitive football environment.
- Celtic might face pressure to sell Maeda if he has a successful World Cup, which could change the team’s dynamics significantly.
- Maeda’s leadership and intensity are crucial for the team’s style, and his absence could weaken the squad’s identity.
- Celtic’s scouting team has struggled to replace key players historically, raising concerns about future replacements for Maeda.
- Ultimately, keeping Maeda could prove more beneficial than any potential transfer fee, as his influence drives the team’s performance.
Eric Knott 
Only problem is that he doesn’t want to stay and is too good for the SPL
The big problem is they will sell Maeda and anybody else they can , when will the fans learn Desmond and his cabal don’t give a jot about what we think , they only care about corporate greed and austerity. Stop giving them your money
Players are persuaded to come to Celtic under the premise that it’s the perfect stepping stone into the big European leagues and Celtic will sell them on for a healthy profit when the time is right for both parties. The problem is that Celtic are incapable of lining up replacements to keep the process rolling properly. Maeda has earned his move and should be allowed to go with our blessing. Hatate had earned his move but was blocked and we can see how useless a demotivated player is to the team.We should have been able to sell Maeda and Engels. We had plenty of notice to line up their replacements. But nobody upstairs has a clue what they’re doing, as proven by the selling of Kuhn and even if we win the title it won’t alter the fact that we are in deep trouble for next season.
DD and his Yes Men Lackeys running Celtic will of course sell Maeda. I expect in about 3 weeks time. Stupidly BEFORE the World Cup,which will once again demonstrate their absolute incompetence ( Celtic is Grace Brothers)
The £25m they will get for Maeda, added to the £27m they get for Engels and the £8m they get for Hatate will generate £60m which, given Celtics well documented working Metrics will give the new Manager a Transfer Kitty of £12m ( 20% ) which of course includes transfer and salaries.
Rinse and Repeat!
Sorry, should have included Nyggren, he’ll go for £16.
That’ll take total transfer income to over £75m.
Celtic might spend 10 / 20% of that total at the very last minutes of the transfer window IF they manage to qualify for the ECL
There’s nothing wrong with someone sitting him down, offering him £60/70k per week, a brand new house for him and his family and another for him and his wife’s mothers and fathers with cars for all, in other words anything he might want remembering Scottish education is the envy of the world so his kids would be safe and well educated.
He may well say no but at least they can say they offered him an outrageous deal but hes wanting to move on, so we thank him for his services and sell him to a club/league where he wants to finish his career.
Let’s face it, we CAN afford it, in fact if there’s a chance to do it we really CAN’T afford not to.