Celtic head coach Brendan Rodgers won his two full debuts in a 2-1 victory over Kilmarnock in the Scotland premiership on Sunday, winning two full-time debuts in a 2-1 victory.
Academy alumni Colby Donovan started for the first time at right back. Summer signing Sebastian Tounakty also began the match on the left field after a deadline move from the Swedish side.
Both players caught their eye in a variety of ways. The fullback showed off his defensive skills, earning seven out of 10 duels, and the winger created four chances per sofa score and completed five dribbles.
Not only did Rogers make his full debut for Tounecti and Donovan from the start, but he also took Kelech Iherenacho out of the bench to make the Scottish Giants debut against Kilmarnock.
The former Sevilla Marksman, who arrived at Parkhead on a free transfer the day after the deadline, rose from the spot in the 96th minute, scoring a winning goal from a penalty spot.
Celtic now hopes that two summer signatures, Iheanacho and Tounetti, will be kicked out of here and they can prove they are worthy of Hoop’s wages.
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By salary, Kieran Tianney is said to be the highest earning player in a summer signature where the Scottish Premiership Championship took place for £400,000 for £50k.
This is no surprise as Scotland International spent the last six years at one of the world’s biggest clubs, Arsenal, and England, after a £25 million travel from Celtic in 2019.
Interestingly, Iheanacho is the next best earner alongside Benjamin Nyglen, after the Spanish side moved to Glasgow on a free transfer from Sevilla after he raised his contract on the deadline.
However, the left-footed forward spent many seasons in the Premier League with Manchester City and Leicester City, and was previously at Lariga Club, making it unlikely he would pay a cheap wage.
Summer Signature | Weekly wages |
|---|---|
Kieran Tierney | £50k |
Kerechi Ihenacho | £25k |
Benjamin Nigren | £25k |
Shin Yamada | £13k |
Sebastian Tounakty | £10k |
Michelle Change Balikwisha | £10k |
Marcelo Saracchi | 7k |
Hayato Inamura | £6k |
Ross Doohan | £5k |
Callum Osmand | £1k |
Jahmai Simpson-Pusey | £1k |
Through pay leaks | |
As you can see in the table above, most of the club’s 11 signatures are reportedly paid rather low wages.
With each salary leak, three of the club’s summer signatures, Tierney, Niglen and Iheanacho, are the top 13 Parkhead earners this season.
It could be a response to last summer’s signature, and how much of it has dropped. For example, Adam Ida took part in with an initial fee of £8.5 million, departed a year later and signed Swansea with an initial fee of £6 million on the deadline.
Another recruit last summer to be at risk of chasing Ida through the Parkhead doors is Orton Trust, which has not provided the value of money since moving to the club.
USA International participated in the summer of 2024 from Sheffield United for a £5 million fee. With each salary, I got more of my signatures this summer than non-Tierney signatures.
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Unless there’s a drastic switch-up in the form, the Scottish giants will need to finally try to say goodbye to the USMNT star when the January transfer window opens for business early next year.
Per salary leak, the ones you can trust earn £32,000 a week. This is more than a new signature by Iheanacho and Tounekti, and is the fifth-highest wage within the first team, only after Callum McGregor, Jota, Cameron-Carter-Vickers and Tierney.
Unfortunately, the former Arsenal central defender’s performance on the hoops pitch since the start of last season failed to justify the payments the club has paid and continued to pay for his services.
Earlier in 2025, Rodgers said the left footed flop had to do better against Dundee. The boss pointed out that the team was “a little soft” and trustworthy at centreback, as they were beaten into the air so easily due to Dundee’s third goal in the game.
Defensive mistakes like the clip above were all too common for former Sheffield United star for players who were signed for big money last year.
Trusty unfortunately hasn’t provided the quality expected from his caliber signature, and found himself as a backup for Liam Scales in the left-side centre-back role earlier this season.
24/25 Premiership | Liam Scale | Auston Trusty |
|---|---|---|
exterior | 26 | twenty two |
A beautiful sheet | 14 | 10 |
Tackle + Intercept per game | 1.9 | 2.3 |
I dribbled the past with each game | 0.2x | 0.5x |
The error led to a shot | 1 | 4 |
The error led to the goal | 0 | 1 |
Dueling success rate | 72% | 64% |
Statistics via Sofascore | ||
As you can see from the table above, the American flop was outperformed on the scale of last season’s premiership. The £5 million signature caused four errors that led to shots and goals, dribbled over twice as much, lowering his physical duel percentage.
These statistics show that the trust at the heart of Celtic’s defense is too much responsible for his costly errors and how easily it found it to pass by him with the ball.
He should be in the best year of his career at 27, but despite being one of the club’s highest earners, he finds himself an option for his position.
Daily Records in the Summer reported that European and English clubs are interested in reliable signatures.
Hoops have to trust for their poor performance, but the Scottish Giants hope to do something enough to justify wages this season after a strong start from both of them against Kilmarnock.
