Almost immediately after the final whistle against Inverness in the Scottish Cup Final on Saturday, the English version of The Sun and reporter Alan Nixon wrote that manager Ange Postecoglou wants to take Celtic’s Japanese superstar Kyogo Furuhashi with him to Spurs.
Nixon wrote:
TOTTENHAM want Ange Postecoglou to bring Japan striker Kyogo Furuhashi with him from Celtic.
The prolific marksman, who netted in the Scottish Cup Final against Inverness, is already on the Spurs list as a partner, cover or even eventual replacement for club talisman Harry Kane.
Furuhashi, 28, would be ideal for Spurs and they are prepared to pay around £25-30million to make him a major capture.
But there are other clubs in England with Kyogo in their sights because of his finishing, clever running and positive attitude.
This news annoyed Celtic fans, mainly because we don’t want to lose our best player, but also because we couldn’t even enjoy our treble win without immediately having to worry about our star striker leaving alongside our manager.
As has been the case for a while now, I try to bring you the updates from trusted posters on the Kerrydale Street forum.
I received a bit of backlash from a small minority after posting updates from a couple of trusted posters saying that Postecoglou to Spurs was practically a done deal, as they still believed Big Ange would be staying at Celtic, and of course that information turned out to be correct.
I try my best to bring you the most accurate information on this site. I’m not here to providing comforting lies or pretend that potentially bad things like losing players or managers isn’t going to happen, there are other Celtic sites that are quite happy to do that, but not this one.
So, as I was saying about the KDS forum, there is a poster who goes by the username M1K3Y89 (Mikey) and he is one of the most trusted posters on the forum and is believed to have a source very high up at the club.
Speaking about Postecoglou’s discussions with Dermot Desmond, informing him that he did indeed want to take over as Spurs manager, Mikey posted:
“He’s tried to clear out the staff, but only asked about one player.”
He then posted last night:
“Ange knows the fee for Kyogo and it’s more than we got for KT.”
Which makes it clear that the one player Ange enquired about taking to Spurs with him was Kyogo, which also lines up with the story that broke after the final saying Spurs are willing to pay £25m-£30m.
The Scottish version of the newspaper have today come out and said the fee is £20m. You can read into that what you will.
As a support, we need to be aware that there is a real possibility that this move happens.
I have seen some posts already say that we would never get anywhere near £25m-£30m for Kyogo or even £20m. The argument is that Kyogo is 28 and in their minds only younger players with a higher sell on value go for that type of money.
Anyone thinking that needs to realise that clubs like Spurs don’t give a jot about selling on for profit down the line. They aren’t an Ajax or a Benfica or even a Celtic. They are very happy to spend big money to get success.
Instant success is what these level of EPL clubs wants. Buying a striker at the peak of his powers for up to £30m is nothing for a team like Spurs who regularly spend around £150m a season on players.
Kyogo has two years left on his current Celtic deal, and as we can see he loves at here, but as we know by now, that doesn’t mean you are going to stay at the club forever.
If Celtic receive their asking price, which in my opinion is the right asking price, then Kyogo will be departing the club with our best wishes.
You can check out the posts below.
What a disappointment Ange you have let Celtic down but to take our best players with you not the man I thought you were
He’s taken you from broken to five trophies in two years. How that translates into “letting you down” beggars belief. I’m NOT suggesting that my Club, Spurs, is bigger than Celtic (I don’t think any EPL clubs, other than Liverpool or Man Utd are) – but the EPL IS a step-up from the SPL, which can’t be denied. It’s natural to expect any successful manager to want to test himself and lock horns with the best, week by week. You could argue that he’s given up CL football and I don’t really have a counter for that, other than, throughout his career, Ange has demonstrated that what he loves most is fixing what is broken and making it better than new. I’m from just outside Melbourne (well, about 90 minutes South) and I have followed Ange’s career since his playing days. It’s never been about letting anyone down. He’s never been fired from a club position, making him almost unique among coaches. Before Ange, I doubt there was a single Celtic supporter who had ever heard of Kyogo Furuhashi. I understand and respect that to buy him, could and should shatter the SPL transfer record of £25m. Days ago, commenting on the matter, I said that the mooted fee of £30m would set a new record but would still be a bargain for a player of that calibre who, in my opinion, could replace Kane at Spurs. That would still represent a huge financial windfall for Celtic – and I suspect, with add-ons (and a sell-on clause) that the eventual price could be much higher. Put it this way, we spent up to £60m on Richarlison, who wasn’t much good BEFORE we signed him and has been little more than a waste of space, since. Furuhashi, himself, having conquered Scotland, may wish to try his luck, down South. I think this story has quite some way to go before it reaches its conclusion – more than anything, that’s because Daniel Levy is involved. Until you’ve dealt with him, you don’t know what meddling is. Either way, best of luck next season. I hope your next manager brings you even more success.
Take them, we will survive and thrive like we always do
Look we are all hoping that any manager that comes stay awhile but have to be realistic and know it’s a stepping stone to the wider market of the English Premier league that’s the general attraction for managers known or unknown in this country…let’s just enjoy in their success while we have them and player’s they collect along the way which others wouldn’t have looked at or enjoyed…
Hope they stay at Celtic as there settled and part of family with players and the fans . Not sure if they’d be the same players at spurs like they are at Celtic . Spurs didn’t want Ange and some fans still no happy with him. Theyl want success straight away like Celtic got after few games but in my opinion English premiership totally different from Scottish premiership. There’s only the two top sides in Scotland but down the premiership we’re talking the top 6to8 teams who can beat spurs . Don’t think Ange will go on an unbeaten run like he has up here down there . So think Kyoto and Jota will stay where there loved at Celtic just now . Only takes fans to knock the confidence out players and spurs fans will if they don’t see progress ASAP.