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Celtic’s Adam Idah in action against Kairat.
After exiting the Champions League in shock fashion at the hands of Kairat, one Celtic player is now reportedly in advanced talks to leave the club in a last-ditch move.
Rodgers: Celtic manufactured “own stress”
Not only did Celtic qualify for the league phase of the Champions League last season, but they managed to find a route out of it into the last 16 for just the first time since 2013.
The Bhoys showed their best progress in over a decade and only exited at that stage thanks to Alphonso Davies’ late winner to send Bayern Munich through. Yet, one season later, Brendan Rodgers’ side won’t even be in the league phase and have been knocked out by a Kairat side who had never advanced beyond this stage in their entire history before the Scottish Premiership champions came to town.
It was the ultimate evening to forget for Celtic, who could not find a breakthrough across two legs – drawing 0-0 twice – before heading out on penalties in the most frustrating fashion possible. The makers of their own downfall, according to Rodgers, the Bhoys must now settle for a Europa League place.
“We showed last year the strides I felt we took but you have to build on that.
“The last thing you want to do in football is manufacture your own stress but all we can do now is look at where we’re at as a football club and decide where we want to go.
“I thought overall it was a poor game. The pitch made it awful. We were defensively OK but couldn’t quite make the breakthrough. We had good chances, especially in the second half and extra-time, and when it goes to penalties anything can happen.”
It could be argued that not one Celtic player had a particularly good game across the two legs, but one substitute particularly had an evening to forget in midweek and is now heading for the exit door.
Idah now in advanced talks to leave Celtic
According to Football Insider’s Pete O’Rourke, Adam Idah is now in advanced talks to leave Celtic just days after coming from the bench and enduring quite the horror show in the Champions League. The forward, who only arrived in a deal worth £9.5m last summer, now looks set to join Championship side Swansea City in a return to English football.
Playing 50 minutes in the second leg against Kairat, Idah failed to register a single shot as Celtic pushed for a goal and completed just one pass in the final third before missing his penalty in the shootout. Nothing went right for the former Norwich City man in a performance that sums up what has been a slow start to his season, having so far failed to score once across four games.
With a matter of days remaining until the transfer window slams shut, Celtic have seemingly shown the 24-year-old the door in ruthless fashion with his Champions League display likely to be his last for the Scottish champions.
