-
News
- 3 hours ago
Nygren B, Balikwisha F: Rating every Celtic signing this season
2 Jun 2026 10:30 CDT |
8 min read
Analysis
The 2025/26 season will go down as one as one of the most tumultuous in the history of Celtic Football Club.
An astonishingly bad summer transfer window was followed by the unexpected departure of manager Brendan Rodgers. Veteran former boss Martin O'Neill was brought in to steady the ship while the club looked for a long-term successor to Rodgers in the dugout.
Frenchman Wilfried Nancy was selected but his appointment turned out to be an unmitigated disaster and so O'Neill was called upon again. The Irishman somehow led The Bhoys to a double - winning the Scottish Premiership on the final day of the season and then the Scottish Cup against Dunfermline.
Celtic are the richest club in Scottish football and the fact that Hearts were allowed to reach the final day leading the table is a testament to how poorly the Glasgow giants are currently being run, and the malaise was summed up by the two transfer windows in the 2025/26 campaign.
Let's look at how Celtic signed and how they performed.
Sebastian Tounekti - D (€6.4m from Hammarby)
Celtic's most expensive acquisition of the summer was the panic-buy of Sebastian Tounekti from Hammarby as they needed to add to their winger roster quickly.
Tounekti is a tidy player and may suit better in a league that isn't so fast and aggressive, but whenever his head went down, it really went down and he eventually became nothing more than an empty jersey.
Yes, he has the odd belter in his locker such as the long-range effort against Kilmarnock but two assists in the league is a shocking return considering he was in a team that dominated the majority of matches.
Michel-Ange Balikwisha - F (€5.2m from Royal Antwerp)
With the Hoops desperate for a new winger towards the end of the summer transfer window, they splurged a significant amount on Michel-Ange Balikwisha and they really should have done more due diligence.
From the moment he stepped onto a pitch wearing a Celtic kit, Balikwisha simply looked terrified to make a mistake and, for a player who was signed to take on defenders, he regularly doesn't and simply passes backwards, which infuriates the crowd.
He was given chances by three managers, all of whom eventually sent him packing and he is no longer involved in matchday squads under Martin O'Neill.
In true modern footballer toys-out-of-the-pram fashion, he deleted every mention of Celtic from his social media.
That was, until, he celebrated winning the league having contributed nothing.
Shin Yamada - F (€1.75m from Kawasaki Frontale)
Celtic's completely desperate infatuation with trying to repeat the trick of signing an unknown forward from Japan, such as Daizen Maeda and Kyogo, and making them a star led to the signing of Shin Yamada. The centre-forward position was a troublesome one the entire season for the Celts and Maeda was eventually asked to play there full-time after various options came and went.
Yamada ran around enough but just did not have the quality, at all, to be playing for a club chasing the title in Scotland.
A major failed experiment.
Benjamin Nygren - B (€1.5m from Nordsjaelland)
If you look at Benjamin Nygren's numbers alone this season, he would undoubtedly receive an A grade here.
After all, he scored 21 goals and recorded nine assists in all competitions and was named the club's Player of the Season.
Yet, there are some fans who just haven't taken to the Swede. For every screamer against Motherwell or free-kick against Hearts, came uninterested, aloof performances in the middle of the pitch which only served to heap more pressure on central midfield team-mate Callum McGregor.
An undoubted enigma, Nygren has an uncanny ability to find himself in the right place at the right time to score goals from midfield, but he shrugs off other responsibilities to do so.
Where would they be without his goals? Who knows. But, overall performances may have been better.
Hayato Inamura - F (€300k Albirex Niigata)
Inamura was signed as a backup for the returning Kieran Tierney and in a couple of friendly matches he actually looked decent on the ball, though slightly slow to react to danger.
Without really being given a run, he was shipped out on loan and Marcelo Saracchi was brought in instead.
Junior Adamu - D (LOAN from Freiburg)
The history books will say that Celtic have Junior Adamu to thank for winning the Scottish Cup.
After all, they had to rely on him coming off the bench to score with a backheel six minutes into injury time as the Hoops completed a comeback after being given a real shock by Dundee in the fifth round.
That was his only contribution after arriving in January.
Tomas Cvancara - C (LOAN from Gladbach)
Tomas Cvancara arrived on loan in January, hoping to revive his career after a failed spell at Antalyaspor on loan from Gladbach.
He started superbly, too, as it was his lung-bursting run down the left-hand side that set up Yang Hyun-jun in a key 2-2 draw away at Tynecastle against Hearts.
The Czech didn't find the net on a regular basis for Celtic, but in addition to his positive debut performance, he also eliminated Rangers from the Scottish Cup with the winning strike in a penalty shootout at Ibrox, which means he'll be remembered fondly.
Celtic have an option to sign him permanently, which they won't trigger.
Kelechi Iheanacho - B (FREE)
It's not an exaggeration to say that, if Kelechi Iheanacho kept himself fit, he would probably be the best player in Scotland.
However, the Nigerian's physical conditioning meant that he was unavailable for long periods and didn't really play for longer than 45 minutes when he did make an appearance.
Still, he displayed quality on the ball up top that Celtic desperately needed while he scored a number of vitally important goals away at Hibs, away at Dundee and away at Motherwell, among others.
Iheanacho showed balls of steel to score two very, very late penalties versus Kilmarnock and then Motherwell on the penultimate game of the season to keep Celtic on track for the title.
Callum Osmand - B (FREE)
We are yet to see a lot of Callum Osmand in a Celtic shirt as his season was cruelly interrupted by a hamstring injury not long after he heroically dumped Rangers out of the League Cup in the semi-final.
He would return before the end of the campaign and no matter what happens in his Celtic career going forward, he'll always be known as the player who clinched the title as he ran through on goal unopposed to pass into the empty net as Celtic beat Hearts 3-1 on the final day.
Kieran Tierney - A (FREE)
Former Arsenal full-back Kieran Tierney would have had a number of big clubs on the continent keen to bring him into the fold last summer. Juventus were even mentioned as a possible destination.
However, a Motherwell boy from just outside of Glasgow, Tierney was always going to return home to the club he loved after leaving for the Gunners in 2019.
Sceptics would say that he regularly had to be substituted due to fitness issues but this is a man who has been playing regularly since his teens, while he was always on the pitch when it mattered and provided much-needed experience along with McGregor.
Let's not forget his contributions in the final third, either, with a hugely impressive six goals and 12 assists to his name.
Marcelo Saracchi - B (LOAN)
Marcelo Saracchi became a cult figure at Celtic as he appeared to connect with the fans almost immediately, as the supporters cheered on his exuberance while on the pitch.
He often came on as a substitute and always gave his all. His contribution in the final game of the season will always be remembered as he strove to take Celtic up the pitch every time he got the ball as they searched for a winner versus Hearts.
He likely won't be signed on a permanent basis, however
.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - C (FREE)
This was always going to be a bit of a 'Hail Mary' deal as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had been without a club for six months after a spell in Turkey.
His technique on the ball was undeniable and you could see his quality as soon as he took to the pitch, while he scored an unforgettable winner on his debut, late against Livingston.
He subsequently found himself in and out of the team and didn't really play a big part in the final flurry of matches.
Joel Mvuka - F (LOAN)
Honestly, the less said about this deal, the better.
Celtic were originally set to buy Mvuka for €3.5m before he failed his medical, which led to them signing him on loan with the option to buy for €4m.
The Scottish giants will be delighted he failed that medical as that outlay would have been scandalous on a player of his talents, or lack thereof.
He didn't make a single appearance in the Premiership and just two in the Scottish Cup, once at Ibrox. Against Rangers, it looked like someone from SoccerAid had invaded the pitch. Awful.
Jahmai Simpson-Pusey and Benjamin Arthur - D (LOAN)
Both of these players were brought in to provide cover for the centre-back position as Cameron Carter-Vickers was out for the season. However, Auston Trusty and Liam Scales played pretty much every game so the pair never had a run of games to impress.
When they did play, they were nothing spectacular.
Julian Araujo - B (LOAN)
Probably the most successful loan deal that Celtic conducted this season was bringing in Julian Araujo from Bournemouth.
Due to the long-term injury suffered by Alistair Johnston, he was needed immediately after signing and immediately looked the part. With Celtic always seeing plenty of the ball, his attacking prowess down the right-hand side was welcome and he scored a hugely important last-minute goal away against Kilmarnock as the highlight of his campaign.
Unfortunately, he missed the run-in due to injury and returned to Bournemouth.
Ross Doohan - N/A (FREE)
Didn't play a single minute.
Read more about:
Premiership
Celtic
