QuoteA 5-1 win, but no contributions from Idah during his hour on the field. Scales got an assist. Idah out on loan next year possibly? Doesn't seem to suit the league setup Celtic face with everyone sitting deep against them.
Rodgers has made 4 changes I think to the side that lost to St Johnstone.
Idah and Scales beneficiaries of the shake up.
A 5-1 win, but no contributions from Idah during his hour on the field. Scales got an assist. Idah out on loan next year possibly? Doesn't seem to suit the league setup Celtic face with everyone sitting deep against them.
Agreed. The games he's done well have been when they're playing equal or better teams. Celtic is a tough team to be a prolific CF in general.
I don't know if a loan is needed or if Idah has to have an honest look at his game and adapt to the league he's playing in. He does have 17 goals or so, so it's hardly a disaster. A solid pre-season could make a huge difference since he didn't really get one last year.
Just saw they would have had a sixth except for Idah being offside. Not a good day for him again
It was actually a really nice lay-off in fairness, and the offside was really really marginal. Toe of the boot sort of stuff.
But yeah, he didn't contribute much other than that - and one other half-chance right before he was taken off but he didn't come close to taking down a ball ten yards out.
Interesting game - Celtic were 4-0 up after 25 minutes, had 89% of possession and there was a stat that they led in terms of "Passes completed in the opposition third" by 161-1. But ultimately if you can't make an impression as a forward in that sort of game, then there's a problem somewhere. I don't think the pre-season can really still be kept as an excuse.
And equally, much and all as Celtic were a joy to watch at times, the gap in qualify was massive. Celtic isn't a club to linger long with I think, even if you get a couple of competitive Champions League games a year.
Gets on the score sheet in a first half rout of St Johnstone, an open goal tap in from a yard with the keeper already beaten, but a goal is a goal at this stage given how his domestic season has gone as a whole.
Sam Curtis with something of a horror moment for one of the other goals, making a hash of an interception and teeing up Maeda in the process. 4-0 at half time. Celtic will have a cup final against Aberdeen in a month for another domestic treble.
Great article on Idah and very prophetic. I wish I had put that fiver down
https://readceltic.com/2025/04/20/th...he-last-laugh/
I mean, Keevins is a bit of a tool and always has been. He's a Dunphy style wind up merchant. But I'll give him credit for still being able to wind up silly Celtic fanzine pages at close to 80 years of age.
Most of what that article is giving Idah credit for was achieved before they spent the 9.5 million on him. He's not the worst Celtic signing ever or anywhere close, but he also so far hasn't been good value for the price paid for him either, since they bought him. A tap in handed to him on a plate in a rout of the worst team in the division doesn't really change that.
For me this is one of the failures of modern soccer. His return for his first season isn't bad and there's all the chance in the world he'll continue to improve.
Makes me think of when Utd bought Andy Cole and there was doom and gloom for two years until he suddenly became one of their most prolific strikers. Idah's champions League form alone should give fans confidence. I've dumped on him before here but he's managed to come back time and again this season and if it wasn't for the price tag hanging over him I doubt there'd be so much criticism.
I haven't looked up his stats in a while. He's joint 15th top scorer in the Scottish Premier League with 8 goals in 30 games. That makes him joint 6th top scorer at Celtic.
His goals per 90 minutes - he has in fairness hardly played all of those games - is 0.51, which is not bad. Celtic's top scorer is Maeda, who scored 16 goals but 0.65 per 90 minutes, so 100% more goals but only 30% more if you equalise time played. That stat for other Celtic players: Kühn 0.54, Kyogo Furuhashi 0.68 (who was sold on to Rennes for Ł10M), and significantly lower than Idah for the midfielders.
One stat of concern is his goal conversion, at just 13%, lower than Maeda 31%, Kühn 20%, Kyogo Furuhashi 16%.
I think it's okay to be mildly disappointed with that, but it's also quite fair to hope he can improve on that next year.
Obviously, the above doesn't include cup or European games.
You can't spell failure without FAI
Suppose you could also compare to last season - 8 goals in 607 minutes, compared to 8 goals in 1416 minutes this season.Originally Posted by John83
The summer will be interesting - will Maeda move on? Will Celtic look to strength in attack? Will a proper pre-season help? (I think there's only so long you can stretch that argument out, but still) And is his current form really what Celtic expect from a near-record signing?
(You could add Jota to the goals per minute stat btw - brought in to replace Kyogo, and scored 0.67 per 90 minutes)
Idah is not the type of striker who is going to score 20/25 goals a season - even for Celtic.
He is more like a Shane Long / Kevin Doyle type player - someone who will bring other things to the table. He is not as good as either of those - but is still developing - and if he gets close to that level he will have a role for Ireland.
I'd don't really agree. If you bring his conversion rate up to Kühn's 20% and give him Maeda's gametime, he's the top scorer in Scotland. The margins between being one of Celtic's strikers and Celtic's star striker is not that big, and his coaches have to be trying to bring that out of him. I think writing him off as a supporting player is doing him a disservice.
You can't spell failure without FAI
Is that not just a different way of saying "if he was better than he is he'd be the top scorer"? His conversation rate is lower because he's not taking enough of his chances and his game time is presumably lower because the manager prefers others to him.
No, though of course I'm simplifying. I mean that there's a relatively small component of his game (small compared with the whole skillset of a footballer) that's below the standards around him, an element that is coachable and also somewhat variable due to luck and confidence, and that if he improves it then he will get the game time to score more. I'm saying there's smaller margins than it seems between a season like he's had an a season like Maeda has had. I'm saying don't write him off as not the type to score more than he has.
You can't spell failure without FAI
Im a big Idah fan but tbh Im disappointed in how things have gone for him to this point. My expectation for him would have been to have established himself as the number 1 striker in the league at this point after his move, especially after Kyogo moved on. For him to still be a bit part player is massively disappointing from my point of view. I dont think you can blame Maedas form for him being out of the team either. Maeda was still brilliant when Kyogo was starting every week and if Idah had take his opportunity to grab the striker spot in the weeks after Kyogo was sold then Maeda and him would both be in the team.
I still think hes a really good striker, and at times like in the Villa game he looks like he could be a top class striker... I just cant figure him out in why he just cant be consistently good
Its really not that complicated!!!
He's very good against a high line, he's quick and can time runs in behind and do damage that way. The problem - and the reason why I don't think it will work out for him at Celtic unless he improves a lot - is that he struggles badly against a low block.
He doesn't seem technically proficient or intelligent enough (in a footballing sense) to find little pockets of space against deep lying defences and to play the silky one touch stuff that unlocks those kinds of defensive setups. And almost everyone Celtic play against in Scotland sets up that way against them.
He's also not really a header from a corner kind of striker so he doesn't add to his goal tally that way. And he doesn't seem to be on penalties any more, whereas he took them in his loan spell.
So he ends up looking better against Aston Villa than he does against the likes of Ross County. And I'm not convinced that's going to change while he's at Celtic. As things stand, and even including his better stats from last season, his goalscoring rate for Celtic is worse even than failed Ireland international and general deadbeat Anthony Stokes. It feels as though, to be a serious contender to be a starter for Ireland, he needs to be doing significantly better than him.
Id push back on that though and say that he has shown an ability to score against teams in Scotland. On a good day he has the physical attributes to be able to compete against anyone.... but on other days he looks like hes incapable of controlling a football.
Its really not that complicated!!!
Notwithstanding your comments about how inconsistent he can look on the ball, which i agree with, I think Eiramblers point is valid. He does score goals but it, i think, is no coincidence that he rarely scores the first goal when he plays. It is almost a meme at this stage that it is typically the 3rd, 4th etc goal where teams are usually having to push a bit higher and take risks which then plays to his assets.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
Fair point about him not getting 1st goals alright
Its really not that complicated!!!
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