Celtic moved three points clear of their nearest rivals, Aberdeen, in the Scottish Premiership with a 4-1 win over Hearts away from Parkhead on Saturday.
The Dons and Rangers both dropped points at the weekend and this means that the Hoops are now 11 points ahead of Philippe Clement’s men and three points ahead of second place.
Brendan Rodgers won the Premiership title and the SFA Cup in his first season back in Glasgow and is now charging towards more pieces of silverware this term.
The Scottish giants have a League Cup final clash with Rangers at Hampden Park next month to look forward to and are on course to make the play-off stage of the Champions League, having won two of their first four matches in the competition.
Things are looking great for Celtic right now and their work in the transfer market during the summer window has played a role in that, after the likes of Auston Trusty, Kasper Schmeichel, Arne Engels, and Paulo Bernardo were all brought in.
Centre-forward Adam Idah joined on a permanent deal from Norwich City after his loan spell in the second half of last season and scored twice in the 4-1 win over Hearts on Saturday.
Adam Idah’s form this season
Rodgers swooped to bring the Ireland international back to Parkhead on a permanent basis in the summer and it was not a deal that came cheap for the Hoops.
Sky Sports reported that Celtic agreed an initial fee of £8.5m with Norwich to sign the 6 foot 3 marksman, with a further £1m in potential add-ons that could take it to £9.5m in total.
At the age of 23, Idah still has plenty of time to develop and prove that the club were right to spend that kind of money on him, but he is yet to nail down a regular place in the starting XI under Rodgers, with seven goals in 17 outings in all competitions.
The forward scored eight goals in 15 Premiership outings during his loan spell last season and only started five of those matches. It was an impressive return, given his lack of starts, but he has to find a way to get into the line-up ahead of Kyogo Furuhashi.
As you can see in the table above, the Canaries academy graduate has been far more clinical than the Japan international, who has missed a whopping 14 ‘big chances’.
However, Idah has offered little in the way of creativity for his teammates, in comparison to Kyogo, and that may be what he needs to work on in order to nail down a place in the XI.
Whilst it remains to be seen whether or not the Irishman will go on to prove his worth in a Celtic shirt, there is a former Hoops marksman whose form has been on par with Idah’s, despite being sold for far less than the ex-Norwich star was bought for.
How much Celtic sold Vakoun Bayo for
In the summer of 2021, Belgian side Gent swooped in to sign Vakoun Bayo from the Scottish giants for a reported fee of £1.4m, after Toulouse were unwilling to match the asking price.
That came just over two years after Rodgers, during his first spell, had signed the Ivorian forward from Slovakian side Dunajska Streda for a reported fee of £2m in January 2019, after a return of 22 goals and nine assists in 32 games for his previous club.
Unfortunately, though, Bayo was unable to carry over his sublime goalscoring form from Slovakia over to the Premiership for Celtic, and struggled at Parkhead.
The Ivory Coast international, who was hailed as “powerful” by Chris Sutton, managed just two goals and one assist in 17 appearances across all competitions in his first year with the Scottish giants, which included zero goals in nine outings in the top-flight.
Bayo was then sent out on loan to Toulouse in the second tier of French football and enjoyed a solid season, with 13 goals and four assists in 36 games in all competitions.
That, however, was not enough to earn him a second chance at Paradise, as the club decided that the striker would not be a part of their plans and he was sold for just £1.4m.
Where Vakoun Bayo is now
At the time of writing (26/11/2024), Bayo is currently on loan with Watford in the English Championship from Italian side Udinese, who they had sold the forward to earlier this summer.
He has had an odd career since leaving Celtic. The striker spent six months at Gent before joining Charleroi SC on loan, which resulted in a permanent transfer to the Belgian side in the summer of 2022.
Watford then signed him from Charleroi one day later and he spent five months with the Hornets, before going back to Charleroi on loan for the second half of the 2022/23 campaign.
Bayo was then a permanent Watford player for the whole of last season before being sold to Udinese in the summer of 2024, and then loaned back to the Hornets for the current term.
The 27-year-old has, however, made a strong start to the current campaign and is currently level with Adam Idah for goals in all competitions, with both players on seven.
As you can see in the table above, Bayo is currently providing a bigger threat in the final third at Championship level than the Irishman did for Norwich in his last season with the Canaries before his initial loan move to Parkhead.
The Watford star has scored seven goals in all competitions, all coming in the league, and this means that he has been on par with the Hoops marksman, who has also found the back of the net seven times.
Whilst it is hard to say whether or not Bayo would have been a success with more opportunities in Scotland, Celtic may regret cashing in on him for just £1.4m, particularly given Watford spent £5m to sign him in 2022.
