Celtic in the race to sign £6.8m “complete number 9”

The start of a new season is fast approaching, and Celtic continue to be busy in the transfer market.

Already this summer, the Hoops have made five first-team signings, with Kieran Tierney’s return certainly the most exciting, while Benjamin Nygren, Callum Osmand, Hayato Inamura and Ross Doohan have all also arrived.

Meanwhile, on the pitch, Brendan Rodgers’ side have won both pre-season friendlies to date, beating Queens Park 1-0 at Lesser Hampden last Friday, before a 2-1 victory over Cork City at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Tuesday; young defender Colby Donovan the late match-winner in Ireland.

Now, Rodgers will be determined to add more attacking firepower to his ranks, so could the Celts sign a familiar face to Scottish Premiership viewers?

Celtic targeting more attackers

Right now, with Jota sidelined due to an anterior cruciate ligament injury long-term, and Nicolas Kühn on his way to Como, Celtic are short of top-class attacking options.

As the table outlines, while Daizen Maeda was on fire and Adam Idah did reach 20 goals across all competitions, new signing Benjamin Nygren is the only player who was prolific at an elite senior level last season, hence why reinforcements are required.

Thus, reports in Spain claim that Celtic are interested in signing former Aberdeen striker Bojan Miovski.

The North Macedonia centre-forward departed the Dons 12 months ago to join La Liga side Girona for a reported £6.8m fee, but scored just four goals in 22 appearances for the Catalan club, hence why Blanquivermells are looking to sell.

The aforementioned report claims that Bundesliga duo Freiburg and newly-promoted Hamburg have also ‘expressed interest’, with Girona hoping to recoup the money invested last summer.

So, could the former Aberdeen fans’ favourite be back in Scottish football, but this time bedecked in green and white hoops?

Why Bojan Miovski would be an upgrade on Adam Idah

During his time at Pittodrie, Miovski certainly impressed, with his performances described by journalist Bence Bocsák as “quality”, thereby included in the PFA Scotland Team of the Year, which is always an impressive feat for any non-Old Firm player.

Then teammate Nicky Devlin claimed that Miovski was the best striker in the Premiership, while Scott Bradley of Breaking the Lines labelled him a ‘clinical finisher’. Journalist Josh Bunting even described him as the “complete number nine“.

So, let’s assess how his statistics compare to Idah, who is yet to really nail down the starting centre-forward spot at Celtic, despite being signed for £9m following a loan spell, and the obvious need for a striker after Kyōgo Furuhashi was sold.

As the table outlines, Miovski’s raw statistics, goals and assists, are more impressive, albeit he has played more than twice as many minutes in Scottish football than Idah.

Nevertheless, the bottom section of statistics underlines why this is such a noteworthy achievement by the North Macedonia, scoring that many goals for a team who finished third and then seventh, thereby taking significantly fewer shots and enjoying substantially fewer touches than Idah.

Thus, with the service that a Celtic striker enjoys, just imagine how good Miovski’s goal-scoring statistics would be.

Thus, given that he knows the league, so would take little to acclimatise, if Celtic are searching for a guaranteed goalscorer right now, he might just be their man.

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