More league goals than Idah: Celtic's £2m flop is now a "complete striker"

Celtic supporters have plenty to look forward to for the remainder of this season.

In mid-week, the Hoops’ Champions League campaign heartbreakingly came to an end, ousted by Bayern Munich, leading on the night in Bavaria thanks to Nicolas Kühn, making it 2-2 on aggregate, only for the Bundesliga leaders to snatch victory deep into stoppage time.

Domestically meantime, having already hoisted aloft the League Cup in December, the Celts are on course for a sixth treble in nine seasons.

Brendan Rodgers‘ side are through to the Scottish Cup quarter-finals while, ahead of Saturday lunchtime’s visit to Hibernian, sit a ginormous 13 points clear at the top of the Premiership.

Meantime, a former Celtic flop is flying south of the border, currently out-scoring Adam Idah in the EFL Championship.

Celtic’s best centre-forwards

Celtic supporters have been treated to a fair few high-quality centre-forwards over the years.

Right now, their attack is being spearheaded by Daizen Maeda, who’s now scored 51 goals in 144 appearances for the Hoops while, considering he’s bagged 11 goals since Christmas, current teammate Alistair Johnston recently described him as “one of the most in-form players in Europe”.

Meantime, the Japanese striker’s close-range header in the first leg against Bayern Munich saw him become the first Celtic player since Joe Craig in 1977/78 to score four+ goals in a single Champions League season.

Maeda got the nod in Munich to lead the attack, chosen over Adam Idah, whose statistics aren’t too bad either, having netted 13 times so far this season, including three in the Champions League, so let’s see how both compare to some of the great Celtic strikers of the not too distant past.

There are certainly some legendary centre-forwards on that list, all of whom have produced massive moments in a hooped jersey, but right now it’s Idah who has the best minutes-per-goal ratio, possibly helped by his significantly smaller sample size.

One striker who certainly did not make the cut, scoring just two goals for the club, has probably been completely forgotten about by the majority of the Celtic supporters, but is currently outscoring Idah in the league.

Celtic flop turned Championship star

Vakoun Issouf Bayo joined Celtic from Slovakian side FC DAC 1904 Dunajská Streda for a reported fee of £2m in January 2019, with club-legend Ľubomír Moravčík describing him as a “proven” goalscorer upon his arrival.

Fair to say, he did not live up to this hype, scoring just two goals in 17 appearances for the Celts, labelled a ‘flop’ by Joe Donnelly of the National, thereby loaned out to Toulouse, before being sold permanently to Gent for £1.4m.

After catching fire at fellow Belgian outfit Royal Charleroi, scoring 14 times in just 26 outings for les Carolos, Bayo joined Watford for £5m in July 2022, and has really found a home in Hertfordshire.

The Ivorian has scored 21 times in his career for the Hornets, ten of which have come in the EFL Championship this season, including bagging four as Tom Cleverley’s team smashed Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough in November. That places him ahead of Idah with regard to league goals, with the Irishman netting just eight times in the Premiership.

This, according to Andrew French of the Watford Observer, makes him the first Watford player to score four in a match since Odion Ighalo in 2015, and only the seventh player to do so overall. It’s no wonder Cleverley dubbed him the “complete striker“.

For comparison, during his final half-season at Norwich, Idah scored just six goals in one fewer appearance, so, while you’ll be hard-pushed to find a Celtic supporter who believes they should’ve kept hold of Bayo, his form in England’s second-tier is something that surely no one at Parkhead could’ve seen coming.

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