CELTIC have been linked with a move for Manchester City and Japan defender Ko Itakura over the past 24 hours. [RecordSport]
The 24-year-old is in the final year of his Manchester City contract and has spent the last 18-months playing his football for FC Groningen.
Can anyone remember the last defender we signed from the dutch side?
As with all Celtic transfer rumours, we dig a little deeper to see how viable the transfer could be.
On the face of it, Celtic would offer a great opportunity for the centre-back who is well thought of at Groningen. Ko has no future at Manchester City and could use this summer to make permanent move away from the City group.
Ange Postecgoglou’s knowledge of Japanese players will also mean he knows about Ko and will be aware of his strengths and weaknesses.
The defender ticks a lot of boxes for a Celtic signing.
However, one major snag for Celtic would be the player’s immediate availability.
It’s come to our attention the Japanese star has made Japan’s Olympic squad. The competition runs from 21 July – 7 August, meaning the player would not be available to come to Glasgow until after the season has started.
Japan squad for Olympics with numbers:
1 GK Keisuke Osako
⁰2 DF Hiroki Sakai
3 DF Yuta Nakayama
4 DF/MF Ko Itakura
5 DF Maya Yoshida
6 MF/DF Water Endo
7 MF/FW Takefusa Kubo
8 MF Koji Miyoshi
9 FW Daizen Maeda
10 MF Ritsu Doan
(cont.)— JSoccerMagazine/JSoccer.com (@JSoccerMagazine) June 22, 2021
