Scottish Premiership champions Celtic’s transfer model of buy, develop, sell and repeat has once again proven to be highly successful.
Celtic star Maeda says he will turn down transfer request
Odessonne Edouard arrived as a raw talent and left for Crystal Palace in 2021 for around £14 million. Jota lit up the Premiership with his quick dribbling, but was sold to Al Ittihad in 2023 after just one season for an estimated £25 million.
And last summer Brighton signed Matt O’Reilly, arguably the creative heart of the title-winning side, for a fee of around £25m.
Celtic’s most expensive sales – click for full list | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
rank | player | commission | Sales destination | year |
=1 | matt o’reilly | £25m | brighton | 2024 |
=1 | who | £25m | Al Ittihad | 2023 |
=1 | Kieran Tierney | £25m | arsenal | 2019 |
4 | Moussa Dembele | £19.7m | lyon | 2018 |
5 | nicholas kuhn | £16.5m | as | 2025 |
6 | Odessonne Edouard | £14 million | crystal palace | 2021 |
7 | christopher ager | £13.5m | brentford | 2021 |
8 | virgil van dijk | £13m | southampton | 2015 |
9 | Victor Wayama | £12.5m | southampton | 2013 |
10 | Jeremy Frimpong | £11.5m | bayer leverkusen | 2021 |
As the summer transfer window approaches, Daenen Maeda is the latest name to dominate talk of leaving the club, with Chris Sutton urging the forward to stay.
“He’s irreplaceable. When you look at what he’s doing, it’s incredible.
“I’ve seen some great players who left the football club, maybe not at the level, but for example, if a goalscorer leaves, you can bring in a goalscorer, but you don’t bring in a player who can do something like Daenen Maeda.”
And with Japan team-mate Kogo Furuhashi struggling at Birmingham City and now being backed for a move again, the Japanese star will soon get a warning of what will happen if he leaves at the wrong time.
Kyogo could be sold amid struggles in Birmingham
Kyogo left Celtic in January 2025 to join Rennes for a fee of around £10m, but was sold to Birmingham just six months later for around £8m.
Despite playing 28 games in the Championship this season, the 31-year-old has only scored once and registered just three strikes across all competitions.
And former Blue Clinton Morrison told GOAL that the forward could be sold this summer: “He had a chance at Birmingham City but he didn’t take it. That can happen. It’s about players lacking confidence. His work rate is great, but when you’re number nine you have to have more than just your work rate. He was getting chances and he was just going for it.”
“If he had started there in the first few games and started scoring a lot of goals as a centre-forward, his confidence would have bounced back and he would have scored a lot of goals, but he was far from that.
“He is a player they can move on to because he has a lot of money and they are trying to see if they can get some money for him.”
EFL pundit Don Goodman also told the magazine: “From a value-for-money perspective, that’s terribly wrong with that transfer. And it’s really surprising. I like the way he moves. He’s energetic, he’s quick. But to be honest, after a difficult start, he didn’t look like he was going to hit the barn door.”
Celtic owner Dermot Desmond has come under heavy criticism in recent years for both his managerial and team-building decisions, but Kyogo was yet another example of Celtic’s buy low, sell high strategy working perfectly.
Already tender: Celtic could spend £8m on ‘fabulous’ Jan replacement
Celtic could move to sign the star, who they tried to sign in January, and could use him as a starter in place of Yang Hyun-joong.
