£3.5m flop may never play for Celtic again after Yang's emergence
da imperador bet： Brendan Rodgers returned to Celtic in the summer of 2023 to replace Australian head coach Ange Postecoglou, who decided to join Tottenham Hotspur.
da brdice： The Northern Irish head coach, who enjoyed an almost-three-year spell at Parkhead between 2016 and 2019, came in off the back of Postecoglou winning a domestic treble in Glasgow.
Rodgers could not quite replicate that in his first season, winning the Scottish Premiership and the SFA Cup, but he is currently on course to land the domestic treble in his second campaign.
The Celtic board have backed the former Leicester City and Liverpool manager in the four transfer windows that he has had to date in his second spell, as they have not been afraid to splash the cash on new recruits to bolster the squad.
Not all of their recruits in the summer of 2023, in Rodgers’ first window, worked out, though, and Hyun-jun Yang was one player who seemed destined to become a flop at Parkhead.
How much Celtic paid for Hyun-jun Yang
Sky Sports reported that the Scottish giants splashed out a fee of £2m to sign the South Korea U22 international from Gangwon ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, in an attempt to bolster the manager’s options in the wide areas.
The young forward had scored nine goals and provided five assists in 71 first-team matches for Gangwon in his career, which immediately suggested that Celtic were not signing the finished article.
That proved to be the case in his debut season in Glasgow. Yang ended the 2023/24 campaign with a return of just one goal and three assists in 31 appearances in all competitions.
The young winger failed to provide any sort of consistent threat at the top end of the pitch, as either a scorer or a creator of goals, in the major competitions for the Hoops.
Hyun-jun Yang (23/24)
Premiership
Champions League
Appearances (starts)
24 (10)
4 (2)
Goals
1
0
Big chances created
5
0
Assists
3
0
Dribbles completed per game
1.3
1.0
Stats via Sofascore
As you can see in the table above, Yang offered very little in the final third for Rodgers in either the Premiership or the Champions League last season.
His struggles in his debut campaign in Scottish football may have led some to wonder what the future would hold for him at Parkhead, particularly with the likes of Nicolas Kuhn, Daizen Maeda, James Forrest, and Luis Palma at the club last summer.
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However, Yang remained in Glasgow during last summer’s transfer window to stay and fight for his place in the squad, and has developed into a valuable squad player for Rodgers.
Hyun-jun Yang's Celtic improvement
The 22-year-old winger is only three appearances, with more than a month of the season left to play, away from equalling his matches played from last season, with 28 in the current campaign.
Yang has already beaten his tally of goal contributions from the 2023/24 campaign (four) with a return of five goals and six assists in those 28 outings in all competitions.
This shows that the South Korea international has developed and improved during his time in Glasgow, by adding more goals and assists to his game – despite playing fewer games so far.
Journalist Anthony Joseph described him as a “raw” player with “real potential” recently, suggesting that he could be the latest player to be improved by Rodgers.
At the age of 22, Yang still has plenty of time left ahead of him to develop further and emerge as a key first-team regular for the Hoops in the future. His current improvement suggests that the winger is on the right track and that Celtic may have hit the jackpot by landing him for £2m in 2023.
However, his impressive form for the Scottish giants this season, and the improvement in training that has led to it, may have just ended another forward’s career at Parkhead.
Luis Palma's Celtic career may be over
Luis Palma was also signed to bolster the club’s options out wide in the summer of 2023, when he arrived from Greek side Aris for a reported fee of £3.5m – £1.5m more than Yang was bought for in the same window.
The Honduras international, actually, enjoyed a fairly impressive debut season in Scottish football. He ended the 2023/24 campaign with a return of ten goals and ten assists in 36 outings in all competitions.
However, six of those goals and nine of those assists came in the first half of the season, before his form tailed off towards the end of the campaign.
Palma, then, struggled to get game time in the first half of this season, with 267 minutes across 12 outings in all competitions, as he fell out of favour whilst Yang stepped up as a brilliant squad option.
Luis Palma (Premiership)
23/24
24/25
Appearances (starts)
28 (18)
8 (1)
Goals
7
0
Big chances created
14
1
Assists
9
0
Key passes per game
2.4
1.5
Stats via Sofascore
As you can see in the table above, the Honduras international’s form dropped off a cliff heading into the 2024/25 campaign, whereas, Yang’s output in the final third improved.
That left Rodgers with a decision to make on Palma, who was described as being too “wasteful” by John Hartson, and the Hoops boss opted to part ways with the winger.
Olympiacos signed him on loan in the January transfer window, with an option to make it permanent in the summer, and it was recently reported that they are interested in activating the €4m (£3.4m) option, which would spell the end of his career at Parkhead.
Therefore, Yang’s improved performances have, essentially, ended Palma’s time in Glasgow because he has stepped up to provide excellent competition for the likes of Maeda, Jota, and Kuhn, whilst the Honduran flop failed to provide a reliable option on the flank.
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Now, Yang has the chance to kick on and become a star for the Hoops, and Palma has the opportunity to start anew with a permanent return to Greece this summer.