Celtic have a dream Tounekti improve who’s performed 0 minutes all season

Celtic head coach Wilfried Nancy has already needed to cope with an terrible lot since he made the transfer from Columbus Crew to switch Brendan Rodgers within the dugout.

He misplaced his first 4 matches answerable for the Scottish Premiership giants, together with the League Cup closing to St Mirren, and eventually picked up his first win in opposition to Aberdeen final weekend.

The French tactician has additionally needed to cope with shedding two of his wingers, Sebastian Tounekti and Michel-Ange Balikwisha, due to the African Cup of Nations, which has left him short-staffed within the extensive areas.

Why Celtic must signal a brand new winger in January

With the January switch window across the nook, the Scottish giants ought to be trying so as to add another choice within the extensive areas to bolster the squad.

While the system is now a 3-4-2-1 with none ‘pure’ wingers, the wing-backs play very excessive up the pitch, like wingers, and the 2 quantity tens behind the striker can even really feel like wingers at instances.

When Tounekti and Balikwisha return from worldwide responsibility, Nancy may have loads of choices at his disposal, however it’s the high quality of these choices that ought to come into query.

25/26 Premiership	Tounekti	Balikwisha
Appearances	11	7
Objectives	1	0
Minutes per purpose	667	N/A
Key passes per sport	1.5	0.4
Huge possibilities created	1	1
Assists	0	1
Stats by way of Sofascore

As you possibly can see within the desk above, the pair have mixed for one purpose and one help in 18 appearances within the Premiership up to now this season for the Hoops, which is a reasonably dismal return in entrance of purpose.

That is why the membership ought to be seeking to bolster their extensive choices within the January switch window by bringing in one other ahead who can provide extra high quality on the high finish of the pitch.

While Celtic ought to look to signal a right-sided attacker to enhance on Balikwisha, who has been utilised on the proper and the left flank, they have already got an improve on Tounekti in ready at Parkhead.

The Celtic star who might be an improve on Sebastian Tounekti

In Could earlier this 12 months, Hoops ahead Jota suffered an ACL damage that was anticipated to maintain him out of motion for round 9 months, as much as February 2026, which implies that he has not performed a single minute within the 2025/26 marketing campaign but.

Chatting with supporters earlier this month, the Portuguese attacker mentioned that he thinks his restoration is “going the proper means“, which, hopefully, means that he’s on monitor to return in February.

If Jota is again and accessible for choice in February, Nancy doesn’t have too lengthy to attend to have an excellent extensive possibility accessible for choice, and one that will be an enormous improve on Tounekti.

Celtic paid £8m to signal the extensive man from Rennes within the January switch window at first of this 12 months, bringing him again to Parkhead for a second spell, however he solely acquired to play 11 Premiership video games earlier than his damage.

In these 11 appearances, although, the previous Al-Ittihad attacker confirmed the form of type that supporters beloved him for throughout his first spell, when he produced 25 targets and 23 assists in two seasons, per Sofascore.

Jota scored 4 targets, created three ‘huge possibilities’, and registered two assists in seven begins within the league final season, per Sofascore, which implies that he scored three extra targets and produced twice as many assists as Tounekti and Balikwisha have managed mixed up to now this time period.

24/25 Premiership	Jota per 90	Rank vs wingers
xG	0.48	Prime 8%
Objectives	0.63	Prime 6%
Pictures heading in the right direction	1.42	Prime 6%
xA	0.37	Prime 8%
Assists	0.32	Prime 17%
Probabilities created	1.89	Prime 25%
Stats by way of FotMob

As you possibly can see within the desk above, the Portuguese ace was one of the productive extensive gamers within the division within the 2024/25 marketing campaign, rating extremely amongst his positional friends in a number of goalscoring and inventive metrics.

This season, Tounekti is averaging 0.14 targets and 0.30 xA per 90 for Celtic within the Premiership, per FotMob, which reveals that he has not been anyplace close to as productive in entrance of purpose because the presently injured star was.

Jota, who pundit Michael Stewart described as a “game-changer” who “raises the bar”, is a confirmed performer who has been there and achieved it for Celtic throughout two spells, which implies that he is kind of a protected possibility for Nancy, so long as his damage doesn’t have a significant impression on his efficiency degree.

Due to this fact, the 26-year-old wing wizard, who has not performed a single minute this season because of damage, can return as an enormous improve on Tounekti and, because the winger Nancy presently lacks, when he returns to motion at first of 2026.