Celtic’s Right-Wing Conundrum – Ghedjemis Slips Away, And The Prospect Obsession Rolls On

The right wing has been broken since Kuhn left, and the people running this club are still treating it like a footnote.

That’s where we are.

It’s the spot we sold our best attacker from. It’s the spot we’ve never properly replaced. And it’s the spot that – somehow – still gets shopped for in the bargain bin… Mvuka

So let’s talk about it. Properly.

Ghedjemis – Linked, Wanted, Gone

Start with Fares Ghedjemis, because the Ghedjemis story tells you everything.

Celtic were linked. The supporters looked at the profile and immediately got it. Direct. Quick. A right winger who actually frightens full-backs.

For me, he was exactly the type of player we should have been chasing with both hands.

I even said as much. I listed him among the names I’d revisit when O’Neill’s rebuild started taking shape. He was on the list. He was the right idea.

And now? Reports are circling that Borussia Dortmund are observing him – alongside Monaco, Lazio and Atalanta.

Twenty million euros. Contract until 2028. Some of Europe’s sharpest clubs are all sniffing.

That’s the company he keeps.

That’s the level he’s at.

And somehow we let him slip from our grasp in January.

This is the bit that stings – because it isn’t that we didn’t spot him. We spotted him. The link was there. We just can’t seem to move with any urgency when it actually matters.

Identify the player. Deliberate. Watch a Champions League club close the gap while we’re still “monitoring”.

We’ve seen this film before, haven’t we?

Cole Campbell – Exciting On Paper, But Whose Project Is He?

Which brings us neatly to the name doing the rounds right now.

Cole Campbell.

On paper, I get the excitement. A Borussia Dortmund winger arriving at Celtic sounds like a statement. The BBC is reporting initial talks after Hoffenheim decided against making his loan permanent. The scouting profile reads well – pace, direct running, and comfortable off either flank.

There are Nicolas Kuhn comparisons to be made. Same kind of mover. Same kind of threat.

And look, I’d love that to be true.

But here’s the reality.

Campbell is twenty. The loan to Hoffenheim – the one meant to kickstart his senior career – ended with them choosing not to keep him. That’s not a small detail. That’s a Bundesliga club, having watched him up close for six months and deciding he wasn’t worth the permanent fee.

So the question isn’t whether he’s talented. The question is whether a player with that little senior football behind him walks into Parkhead and becomes the first-choice right winger in a title race.

In Europe.

Against teams who’ll punish you the second your wide man goes missing.

Is Campbell a genuine answer to that – or is he a project we’re talking ourselves into because the badge on his current shirt sounds impressive?

For me, that distinction matters more than anything else here.

Ashton Muir, And The Manchester City Pipeline

And then there’s Ashton Muir.

Reported interest. A potential cross-border development deal with Manchester City. Tap into the city academy, the thinking goes, and let a bit of that pathway rub off on us.

Now, there’s no doubting the talent City produce. Their academy is one of the best-resourced operations in world football. Genuinely.

But ask the obvious question.

We have a glaring, season-defining hole on the right.

And the plan is… another teenager from somebody else’s youth system?

This is where I lose patience. Because development deals are fine as a strand of recruitment. They’re a nice-to-have. A long game.

What they are not is a fix for a first-team problem that’s been staring us in the face since Kuhn walked out the door.

You don’t plug a Champions League-sized gap with a prospect and a press release about “pathways” and “the Manchester City pipeline”.

For me, that’s not recruitment. That’s a talking point dressed up as a strategy.

The Real Issue – What Level Of Winger Are We Actually Buying?

Step back and look at the pattern, because the pattern is the story.

Ghedjemis – a ready-made winger – and we’re still “monitoring” while the rest of Europe moves. Campbell – a twenty-year-old just knocked back by Hoffenheim. Muir – an academy kid from the city.

Different names. Different clubs. Same instinct underneath all of it.

Cheap. Young. Unproven. Resale value baked in before the kid’s kicked a ball for us.

When Nicolas Kuhn left, the support had one expectation.

Find another top-level winger.

Not a project. Not a loanee that another club passed on. Not an academy pipeline that takes three years to bear fruit.

A top-level winger.

Instead, we’re sifting through prospects and hoping one of them grows into the job before September.

And I keep coming back to the same point I made about Yang and Tounekti – Celtic’s wide positions have never been built on almost-good-enough players. They’ve been built on decisive ones.

Scott Sinclair delivered instantly. Jota changed games on his own. Kuhn, for all the noise around his exit, gave us an end product.

That’s the benchmark.

A handful of prospects and a loanee that Hoffenheim passed on is not that benchmark.

It isn’t even close.

And What Happened To Elijah Just?

Here’s one that’s been nagging at me.

Elijah Just.

Remember the noise? There was genuine excitement around that link not long ago. The profile fitted. The supporters were into it.

And then… silence.

The chatter just stopped. No update. No explanation. No, “we tried and it didn’t happen.”

It simply evaporated – the way so many of these things evaporate around this club.

So which is it? Have we quietly moved on to other targets and forgotten to tell anyone? Or is this another opportunity slipping away in the background while we deliberate ourselves into a corner – exactly like Ghedjemis?

I genuinely don’t know.

And that’s the problem.

When the only people who seem unbothered by a half-finished right wing are the ones in the boardroom, the silence starts to feel like a pattern rather than a coincidence.

For me, Nicholson should be booking his recruitment team a group appointment at Specsavers. Because they keep spotting the right players and then blinking at the critical moment.

Key Takeaways

• Celtic are linked with Fares Ghedjemis but appear to be “considering” while Borussia Dortmund, Monaco, Lazio and Atalanta all circle – another ready-made winger at risk of slipping away through hesitation.
• Cole Campbell is an exciting name on paper, but at twenty and freshly knocked back by Hoffenheim, he looks far more like a project than a first-choice Champions League right winger.
• Reported interest in Manchester City’s Ashton Muir via a development deal does nothing to solve an urgent first-team problem.
• The wider pattern – cheap, young, unproven targets – suggests Celtic are replacing Nicolas Kuhn’s quality with prospects rather than proven performers.
• The Elijah Just link has gone silent with no explanation, raising fears of yet another opportunity quietly drifting away.
• With the Champions League looming, the board’s recruitment ambition on the right looks nowhere near the level the support expects – or deserves.