£8 Million for Daizen Maeda? Celtic Shouldn’t Even Pick Up the Phone

The club appears to be undervaluing its assets again.

🤝 This article is sponsored by Sandstone Galleries

Limited Edition Landscape Prints

👉 sandstonegalleries.co.uk

Various reports are suggesting that Premier League club Ipswich will sign Daizen Maeda for a guaranteed £8 million with a further £2 million in potential add ons. The potential fee has sparked considerable debate among Celtic supporters. If the figure is indeed accurate, then Celtic’s response should be simple: no deal.

As Celtic supporters we are all aware of the qualities Maeda brings to the table. His relentless work rate will be virtually impossible to replace, but also his goals, assists and match-winning performances will be a big miss. I think every fan is resigned to losing Daizen this summer, yet the club should do everything it can to negotiate a proper deal to allow the Japanese winger to move on. Let’s look at the facts, Daizen is one of the very best pressers in world football. His closing down and workmate is relentless and he’s also added goals and assists to his game. Albeit he didn’t have a strong season at all until the final seven games or so. He has also represented his country and scored at two consecutive world cups. How many Ipswich players have done that? He is worth considerably more to us than £8 million that’s for sure. Chris Sutton is right, this is simply a bad deal for Celtic.

Daizen’s age is not our problem

I’ve heard various commentators mention his age as a reason for him being sold for less than the likes of Ajer and Edouard who also had twelve months left on their deal. Daizen’s age is the buying clubs problem, not Celtic’s. All we know is he is worth more than £8 million to us and there are meant to be several English Premier League clubs interested in striking a deal for the forward.

You’ve also got to take in the cultural impact Dazien brings to the club. Do we benefit from the support and interest from Japan. Ipswich get that for £8million as well? The more you look at it the deal the more it looks like a disaster. The club continues to undersell itself when clubs in Scotland are asking for record fees for their assets. They’ve done strong business before but this looks like a saga the club wants to move on from quick.

On this occasion, Celtic seem to have got it wrong. Maybe they are influenced by them messing him around last summer but that shouldn’t stop the powers that be from doing their job and maximising their asset potential. I refuse to believe that has been done on this occasion.

£8 Million is nothing for Premier League Teams

If Premier League clubs genuinely believe he is good enough to improve their squads, then they should expect to pay accordingly. They consistently pay ridiculous amounts for players all the time but the hard reality is they see Scottish football as a soft touch and no wonder. We are doing nothing to change their opinion.

Maeda has been a great player for Celtic and I wish him the best down in England. If he does leave in the next few days it should only be for a fee that reflects both his importance to the team and the difficulty of replacing him. Most fans would probably accept a fee of £15 million with add ons with his current contract situation.

For £8 million, Celtic shouldn’t even be starting negotiations.

Tim Lisbon

All views expressed on Celtic DNA are personal opinions and are for commentary and discussion purposes only

🔗 Missed this article?