IT is highly improbable that Celtic’s mid-season recruits Yuki Kobayashi and Alistair Johnston will, regardless of how well the duo fare after they start in Scotland next month, make the same sort of impact as their January signings did last term.

Landing Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda and Matt O’Riley completely transformed the Parkhead club’s campaign; they promptly went on a seven game winning run in the cinch Premiership, leapfrogged Rangers into top spot and ended up clinching the Scottish title with a game to spare.

Ange Postecoglou’s injury-ravaged side had trailed Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s team by six points going into the rescheduled winter shutdown in December.

The Greek-Australian coach had been forced to field inexperienced kids like Joey Dawson, Owen Moffat, Adam Montgomery and Liam Shaw in important league games due to the lack of options available to him. The outlook was, despite the wildly-celebrated League Cup success that month, not especially bright.

Yet, midfielder Hatate, forward Maeda and playmaker O’Riley improved Celtic immediately and significantly and they were deservedly crowned champions in May.

Celtic Way:

Japanese centre half Kobayashi and Canadian right back Johnston will be doing well to force their way into Postecoglou’s starting line-up in the coming weeks and months never mind become indispensable first team regulars if the Glasgow outfit continue to perform as well as they did up until the World Cup break.

They are nine points clear in the top flight and intent on completing a world record eighth domestic treble in 2023. Cameron Carter-Vickers, Moritz Jenz and Carl Starfelt should continue to feature in the heart of the rearguard while Josip Juranovic and Anthony Ralston are likely to be preferred outside them. 

Still, the new men are certainly shrewd acquisitions by Celtic who will increase their prospects of enjoying long-term success both at home and abroad. It pays to think ahead in professional football and by bolstering an already strong squad now they have once again done so.

Postecoglou admitted at the Celtic AGM last month that it is inevitable that some of the individuals who have been mainstays of his side since he arrived here last year will be sold going forward. “I don’t fear losing our players,” he said. “I see that as part of the process.”   

There has been persistent speculation about Juranovic, who has started in every Croatia game at Qatar 2022, this season. Just this week he was linked with Atletico Madrid in Spain. It will be little surprise if multi-million pound bids are made for him during the January transfer window or in the summer.

But if a full-back who cost just £2.5m from Legia Warsaw last year is sold – and the league leaders’ business model has long been to cash in on their prized assets – they will not be left short in what is a pivotal position.

Both Johnston, who was brought in from Montreal for a £3m fee, and Kobayashi, who was landed on a free from Vissel Kobe, will be able to settle in to their new surroundings, get to know their team mates and familiarise themselves with their manager’s tactics and system after they get down to business on January 1.

They may well be involved in the Premiership, Viaplay Cup and Scottish Cup in the season half of the season and could easily play their part in landing more silverware. But their presence will perhaps be felt more in the 2023/24 campaign and beyond. They should both be able to hit the ground running.

Celtic Way:

Having a full pre-season with a club is, as any coach will tell you, hugely important to a player. When Jose Mourinho led Chelsea to the Premier League in 2015 during his second spell in charge at Stamford Bridge, he attributed the triumph directly to being able to get Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas early. Everyone in his profession knew exactly what he meant.

Scrambling around in the final days of a window trying to bring in adequate replacements for a reasonable price after a sudden departure is not uncommon. But very seldom does a last-minute buy work out. Celtic have found that out to their cost in the past. Those days, though, appear to be firmly behind them.

Being involved in the World Cup may take its toll on Carter-Vickers, Juranovic, Maeda and Aaron Mooy, who helped the United States, Croatia, Japan and Australia to make it through to the knockout rounds, when they return to their club.

Postecoglou would be well advised to give the quartet a well-earned rest when the Premiership resumes with a difficult away game against Aberdeen at Pittodrie a week today. But he can do so with confidence with the depth he now has and has no need to dip into the reserves to plug gaps.

If anything, his challenge will be keeping those who are not getting a start happy.

Rangers, whose signings of Amad Diallo, Aaron Ramsey, James Sands and Mateusz Zukowski last January failed to prevent a cataclysmic collapse in the Premiership, will have to bring in some serious reinforcements for their new manager Michael Beale in January or history will repeat itself.

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