The one mistake Celtic must not repeat if Japan tour gets go-ahead

“Anyone with half a brain could’ve seen this coming, eh? In football parlance, it’s too big an open goal. It can’t be ignored.”

Those were my own words back in July 2022 when talk of Celtic touring Japan this year first drew breath.

It was, I said, a ‘triple threat’ too good to turn down. The natural appeal of taking Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate, Yosuke Ideguchi (and now Yuki Kobayashi and Tomoki Iwata) to their home nation; of Ange Postecoglou returning to the scene of one of his major successes; of doing so with all of them in the Celtic colours Shunsuke Nakamura made primetime there over two decades ago.

Put it this way: it was never likely to be ignored by the marketeers, was it?

The proposals for a tour of Japan got taken up a notch this week when reports emerged containing potential dates and opposition.

While the opposition – names such as Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and Bayern Munich – understandably stole the headlines, the dates part was far more important.

Japanese outlet Sponichi suggests Celtic’s visit would take place in early July this year. A natural and fair choice, you say? Possibly so, yes, but my preoccupation with the proposed dates is because it hasn’t always been thus.

My worry back in that 2022 newsletter was that marketing would take precedence over football and the scheduling would be all wrong. That is precisely what happened before.

In 2006, to take advantage of peak Nakamura popularity, Gordon Strachan’s Celtic side had a friendly scheduled against Yokohama F Marinos after the start of the season. After they'd already gone to the USA on tour.

They lost 3-0, Nakamura was left saying he felt ‘ashamed’ while Strachan contended that he could now only trust about 14 of his players. They came back to Scotland, promptly lost to Hearts at Tynecastle before, absurdly, going to London to play Chelsea. A 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge preceded a win over St Mirren and a draw at Caley Thistle.

Four games had yielded dropped points in half of them – and it all could’ve been avoided by better scheduling.

You can’t have a 2006 episode. Thankfully, this club regime is not that one and a manager sits the Parkhead hotseat that, above all else, seems to prioritise ‘our football’ at all times.

The reported dates for this coming summer are on the face of it far (far!) more agreeable than the ill-fated 2006 jaunt. It would be hard not to be - but how will it work in practice?

First of all – and this goes for any away trip domestic, European or international – there is a great deal involved in terms of logistics. Flights, hotels, passports, training facilities, recovery facilities, equipment, media planning… that’s just some of it. It’s a massive operation; a football club on the move.

The club has decided on the relatively nearby Austria for pre-season a lot over the past decade whereas this particular logistical operation will involve rather more travel time. Elite players already rack up an often obscene amount of game-time and travel strain throughout the competitive season, so East Asia for pre-season is adding some more on top of that.

Not ideal, but not insurmountable either if there is enough of a break factored into things for them. Will there be? Let’s take a closer look at the schedule…

The last league match takes place the weekend of May 27-28 with the Scottish Cup final, if Celtic make it, slated for June 3. Thereafter the squad would break for, well, a break.

Last summer Postecoglou essentially gave most of them around two weeks off after the May 14 season-ender before recalling them for a week of training ahead of the opening pre-season match against SC Wiener Viktoria on July 6.

Assuming the same type of schedule, the reported early-July Japan dates would mesh well enough with club duties.

International football, however, is another story. Many of the Celtic players will be called up by their countries for mid-June European Championship qualifiers.

That could mean around eight or nine first-teamers led by Callum McGregor - the poster boy for playing far too many minutes season-by-season - as well as Greg Taylor, Carl Starfelt and Liel Abada will all be in competitive qualifying action during their club 'break'.

They'll likely get a week off if they're fortunate before national duty calls. Not long after lies the resumption of club responsibilities and, potentially, the Japan trip.

The other notable exceptions are Cameron Carter-Vickers and Alistair Johnston, who will likely be at the CONCACAF Gold Cup with the USA and Canada respectively by the time Celtic would be looking to return to Lennoxtown ahead of a Japan expedition.

That tournament kicks off on June 24 and runs until July 16 but, internationally speaking, Celtic have been dealt a particularly marketable stroke of good fortune by the Asia Cup’s delay into next year (you can read more about how that might affect the Hoops here).

READ MORE: Celtic’s one recent downward trend — and why it only reinforces SPFL dominance

Initially pencilled into FIFA’s international calendar for June 16-July 16 2023, the combination of China’s hosting duties being revoked and Qatar already accepting an invite to guest at the aforementioned Gold Cup has meant it will now take place in early 2024.

While that is potentially bad news for Celtic come the time it kicks off, it is decidedly good news for them when it comes to a Japan visit this summer.

It means, for instance, that there is no international tournament call-up for Maeda, Kyogo, Hatate, Kobayashi or Iwata, who would all hope to be in the running for inclusion by the time it comes around.

It also means Aaron Mooy (an established Australia key man) and Oh Hyeon-gyu (who missed out on South Korea’s World Cup squad by a hair’s breadth) would be free to join the travelling party too.

So, to recap. A Japan tour still makes far too much sense not to happen. It is too big an open goal and it is both a massive marketing boon as well as a way for Asia-based fans to watch the team in person.

But, like seven months ago, the scheduling concern remains. It has to be planned in an appropriate way, and at an appropriate time, to continue Postecoglou’s our-football-first approach as well as avoid a 2006-style mistake and respect player welfare.

This time around, early reports suggest the clubs and the organisers might just be able to do all of that. Will they?

This piece is an extract from the latest Celtic Digest newsletter, which is emailed out every weekday evening with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from The Celtic Way team.

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