"Celtic need to be careful this season with what they do." Aiden McGeady didn't dress it up. With Daizen Maeda closing in on a £10 million move to newly-promoted Ipswich Town, the former Celtic winger is worried his old club will do what they've done before — sell, and not fill the gap.
The deal structure is £8 million up-front, plus £2 million in performance-related add-ons. On paper, it's smart business. Celtic paid £1.3 million to bring Maeda from Yokohama F. Marinos five years ago, and they're getting nearly eight times that back on a player with one year left on his contract. Martin O'Neill's side can't complain about the math.
But McGeady's concern isn't financial. It's operational.
The Adam Idah problem, revisited
"We've seen that when they let Adam Idah go and they never had a replacement in," McGeady said on Football Fan Cast. That's the pattern he's flagging — Celtic's model works brilliantly at buying and developing, but the exit timing doesn't always align with a ready-made successor walking through the door.
Maeda wasn't always at his best last season. McGeady acknowledged that much — "patchy" was his word. But when Celtic needed him in the Scottish Cup run, culminating in the final against Dunfermline, he delivered. That late-season form, including his goal in the semi-final against St Mirren just seconds into the match, is exactly the kind of impact that's hard to replace with a spreadsheet.
McGeady compared him to Maciej Zurawski, a teammate from his Celtic days — quick, relentless in the press, effective in the box, but not the most technically refined player you'll ever watch. "Technically, you wouldn't say he was fantastic, but will score goals," he said. That combination — high-energy pressing plus a decent scoring return over three seasons — is genuinely difficult to source in the January or summer window without paying a premium.
What this means for Celtic's season
Ipswich are a side fighting for Premier League survival after promotion. For Maeda, the pull is obvious — he's 26, fit, and this is likely his best shot at English top-flight football before that window closes. Celtic can't realistically hold him.
What they can control is who comes in. The £10 million gives O'Neill's recruitment team a clear budget line. Whether they use it quickly and wisely, or let the squad thin out heading into European qualification and a title defence, is the question that will define Celtic's window. Anyone pricing up the Premiership title race might want to keep one eye on that answer.
"Celtic's model is a selling club," McGeady said. "They bring players in, they develop them on, they give them a platform to win things, but they will move on." He's not wrong. The model works — until it doesn't, and the squad is left short in October wondering what happened.
