It was a Friday night packed full of tremendous entertainment as the Hoops dismantled the Scottish Premiership new boys Falkirk 4-1 in a very one sided Premier Sports League cup contest…
Friday night football at Celtic Park. Photo The Celtic Star
Brendan Rodgers had the luxury of leaving out Kasper Schmeichel, Cameron Carter Vickers, Liam Scales, Reo Hatate, Benjamin Nygren and Adam Idah but still seen his side cruise to victory thanks to goals from Daizen Maeda, Alistair Johnston, Dane Murray and an OG from Falkirk’s Liam Henderson after fine work from Yang.
Celtic’s tempo, pace, and rhythm on the night was absolutely fantastic, with the likes of Kieran Tierney, Daizen Maeda, Alistair Johnston, and Arne Engels all shining as we cruised into the quarter finals.
Dane Murray of Celtic celebrates scoring his team’s third goal with teammate Arne Engels during the Premier Sports League Cup match between Celtic and Falkirk at Celtic Park on August 15, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
For all those who are quick to jump onto social media to criticise the 21 year-old Belgium international midfielder, they have been slow in dishing out praise when it is justified to do so. These agendas that exist, whether for Engels, Adam Idah or Liam Scales are unhelpful to the Celtic cause.
Johnny Kenny started in place of Adam Idah, but like his fellow Irishman he failed to convert any chances although he did put in a great shift to be fair, but yet again we looked toothless in the final third in terms of converting chances.
James Forrest and Arne Engels missed two gilt edge chances that a seasoned striker would have buried with their eyes shut. Although in fairness to both players they are not out and out target men, and both were fantastic on the night as they created numerous chances for their teammates.
Johnny Kenny of Celtic reacts during the Premier Sports League Cup match between Celtic and Falkirk at Celtic Park on August 15, 2025 (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Engels in particular had a fine game and his final ball was sublime all night. The Belgian’s assist from the corner kick which allowed Dane Murray to score the third was superb.
Deliveries from dead ball situations have been our Achilles heel in recent years, but Arne has made that all the better, we just need someone who can consistently put away all those opportunities he creates.
Much has been made of our lack of depth, and yes we do need a few new additions, but a quality striker has got to be our top priority, as in this Celtic side the right man scores a barrowload with the likes of Arne, Daizen, KT, Jamesy and Reo providing the creativity. Let’s hope we see some movement on the transfer front in the coming weeks to rectify that issue ad through in a back-up left-back and a couple of decent wingers and we’ll be flying this season.
Dane Murray of Celtic celebrates scoring his team’s third goal during the Premier Sports League Cup match between Celtic and Falkirk at Celtic Park on August 15, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
This has not been an enjoyable transfer window for anyone at Celtic, it’s fair to say it’s left everyone frustrated and no-one more so than Brendan Rodgers. It will be a relief when it closes and hopefully by then Brendan is given what he clearly needs in terms of new signings and we can look forward to the Champions League, assuming we take care of Kairat Almaty. Like I said the other day we can have no excuses if the current Celtic squad fails to win this tie. We’d simply not deserve Champions League football.
Brendan Rodgers, Manager of Celtic, waves as he arrives at the stadium prior to the Premier Sports League Cup match between Celtic and Falkirk at Celtic Park on August 15, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
CELTIC IN THE EIGHTIES BY DAVID POTTER, FOREWORD BY DANNY McGRAIN is published by Celtic Star Books on the fifth day of September. You can pre-order now to guarantee your copy which will be signed by Danny McGrain, with just a limited number of signed copies still available, although they are selling very quickly.
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Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter. Foreword by Danny McGrain. Published on Celtic Star Books on 5 September 2025. Click on image to pre-order.
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Idah started reasonably brightly in the first game against St Mirren and made some decent runs. Forced a couple of decent saves, but also made a couple of timid efforts and faded out.
Against Aberdeen he reverted and regressed to the maligned character of last year, sticking between the centre halves and not offering a huge amount of options. You would not bet on him scoring in any game right now.
But the chances are there, and the midfield especially is generating openings. Even with depleted wing play we could have scored 8 or 9 in those 2 games alone, and perhaps that’s getting carried away but a confident striker would indeed have buried many more chances than have been converted so far.
However, you need a confident finisher to:
1. Want to come here
2. Get paid for
Proven goal scoring strikers aren’t generally cheap.
Bearing in mind when Jota comes back, Maeda immediately moves back onto the centre. I’m sure that’s the Board’s default plan. No need to spend!!
Are the coaches in the dug-out ignoring Brendan at 2.01 on the highlights video?
If so, that is shocking! If they are not with him they shouldn’t be there.
He looks as if he is talking to himself.
I’m in 2 minds, I wonder if it would be better having 2 wingers and then we have Daizen through the middle. Or as you say, a striker, with Daizen on the left but we still need another winger as Jamesy can’t play every game. Hopefully this will be the absolute focus ie the 2 changes we can make to our CL squad (although no time to bed in with the other players, thanks to our ceo/carmalite nun.
More positively, it was great to see young Murray doing well, scoring and being part of the first team. This is what we need, more youth being allowed to develop with the team. HH
You’ve got a bit of a nerve stating “these agenda’s that exist” against Engels, Scales or Idah. You then go on to rant about the lack of a quality striker etc. What’s Idah? A “striker”. Case proven. I don’t have an agenda either just because i don’t rate Idah at £9-million. Nor do i have an agenda just because my opinion of what makes a good footballer differs from yours. Like most of my fellow Celtic supporters i invest my hard-earned into the club in various different ways. So i will openly criticise any player i don’t rate. We are all entitled to our opinions. And doing so does not mean we all have an agenda.
Mind you, i don’t jump on to social media either to criticise players because i simply don’t do social media. If i have a dislike for any player i usually reserve my criticisms for btl on the various Celtic blogs among my fellow supporters, or when i’m among my Celtic mates. We all have a right to express our approval, or otherwise, of any player without attempts to silence us. It’s a sport, and that’s part-and-parcel of any sport. The fans all have their favourites and their dislikes etc.
And i agree 100% with “LUBO’S BOOTS” (@ 4:33 pm). I also believe we already have the quality at Celtic to retain our title and progress into the Champions League proper. We also have a great talent languishing in the second-string, the young lad Osmand. If we bring him into it and shift Maeda back up front we will run away with most domestic games. No Scottish team could handle a rampant Celtic team with Maeda, Osmand, Engels, McCowan and Nygren all on the field at the same time. I also believe we already have the quality in our squad to progress past Kairat.
Hell, i would even settle for Idah only scoring crucial goals in the big important games such as the Glasgow derby. We will soon see if his scoring rate picks up again. Time will tell.