Celtic have secured their biggest bargain since Maeda in "amazing" star

This may be the end of the European road for Celtic this season, but there are certainly plenty of positives to take.

On Tuesday night, the Hoops were heartbreakingly dumped out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich, leading 1-0 in Bavaria, thanks to Nicolas Kühn’s coolly taken finish, only to concede in the 94th minute, cruelly crashing out

Plenty of Celtic stars took plaudits, but one in particular was outstanding, underlining why he’s considered to be such a good signing.

Daizen Maeda: Celtic’s bargain signing

Having arrived from Yokohama F. Marinos in January 2022 for just £1.6m, Daizen Maeda has to be up there as one of Celtic’s best value-for-money signings of all-time.

The Japanese forward has now scored 51 goals in 144 appearances for the club, following a recent hat-trick over Raith Rovers, before also heading home against Bayern Munich from close range during last Wednesday’s first leg at Parkhead.

Having also found the target against Slovan Bratislava, Borussia Dortmund and Club Brugge during the league phase, Maeda became the first Celtic player since Joe Craig in 1977/78 to score four or more goals in a single European Cup campaign.

In the intervening years, legends such as Mo Johnston, Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton, Kenny Miller, Georgios Samaras and Moussa Dembélé, as well as Adam Idah and Kühn this season, all reached three.

Given that Maeda has scored 11 goals across all competitions since Boxing Day, now on 22 goals for the season, right-back Alistair Johnston described him as “one of the most in-form players in Europe”. It’s a fair assessment.

However, one of Maeda’s teammates up the other end of the park, who arrived for free, might just be outperforming him.

Celtic’s biggest bargain since Maeda

As Kasper Schmeichel joined Celtic last summer, filling the void left behind by former Manchester City colleague Joe Hart, there were perhaps fears over the wisdom of replacing one veteran goalkeeper with another.

As it has transpired, as noted by Graeme McGarry of the Herald, he has been ‘outstanding’ since arriving in Glasgow, with the 38-year-old looking right at home in the green and white hoops.

In this season’s Champions League, at the time of writing, only one goalkeeper, namely Peter Vindahl Jensen of Sparta Prague, has made more saves than Schmeichel’s 38, only two have faced more than his 54 shots on target, with the Danish international recording a post-shot xG figure of 17.3, a tally only bettered by three keepers.

Equally, he also ranks first in the Premiership for save percentage (85.5%) and clean sheets (19), on course to smash the top division clean sheet record of 25, set by Rangers four seasons ago – a record that had stood for 115 years prior to that.

So, let’s see how his statistics compare to Celtic’s best goalkeepers of the recent past.

As the table outlines, Schmeichel boasts the best clean sheet percentage and highest save percentage of the goalkeepers selected, even if, of course, his sample size is significantly smaller, he’s on course to be better than all of the previous trio.

The Dane – who was recently rewarded with a new contract – was notably at his brilliant best in Bavaria, having been so unfortunate to concede at the death following an initial stunning reaction save.

Speaking on CBS Sports’ Champions League coverage, former Man City defender Micah Richards labelled Schmeichel’s display in Munich as “amazing” and “top draw”, with Robbie Hanratty of the Herland noting he made ‘nine impressive saves’, while George O’Neill of BBC Sport believes the goalkeeper ‘performed heroics’.

So, despite his veteran status, by signing Schmeichel on a free transfer from Anderlecht, Celtic absolutely struck gold.

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