Celtic seem close to concluding their year long interest in Michel-Ange Balikwisha with the signing of the winger.
There has been two concerning injuries but the timeline to this transfer sums up the problems of Celtic’s recruitment operation, something that has been clearly evident in every answer that Brendan Rodgers has given to transfer questions.
The exact structure, if there is one of Celtic’s recruitment is a mystery to supporters, strangely no-one has asked Rodgers what his role is within Celtic recruitment.
As CEO Michael Nicholson should have the final say, Head of Football Operations Paul Tisdale must be involved but since neither has spoken a word in public about their jobs fans are left to join the dots.
If he needed convincing joining, then we’re going to need convincing he’s worth this transfer saga.
— Matt Davenport (@MattDav1527) August 23, 2025
Lurking in the shadows is the claim put out by a dedicated group that every deal has to be signed off by Dermot Desmond while only a complete fool would believe that the club Chairman has no role in the buying and selling of players.
Apparently he only has a ceremonial role which comes with a salary of £120,00 plus perks.
Celtic were first linked with Balikwisha last summer, after a season in the job Rodgers knew that Luis Palma, Marco Tilio and Yang Hyun-jun weren’t capable of operating at the level he required, Nicolas Kuhn had shown in spells that he was on the way up with his pre-season performances of the highest quality.
On 24 July 2024 Stephen McGowan reported in the Daily Mail:
Despite agreeing a reduced £3.5million fee with Benfica for Paulo Bernardo, talks over personal terms are dragging on, while the quest to sign striker Adam Idah from Norwich City has hit a wall.
Rodgers has also targeted Burnley central defender Dara O’Shea and Royal Antwerp winger Michel-Ange Balikwisha before the end of the window and outlined his stance in a meeting with chief executive Michael Nicholson and finance director Chris McKay.
According to Transfermarkt Balikwisha suffered a torn thigh muscle on August 1 which ruled him out of action for 127 days.
On 17 December 2024 in the Daily Mail McGowan reported:
By all accounts, Michel-Ange Balikwisha knows a thing or two about timing his runs to perfection.
With the transfer window set to open in a couple of weeks, the Antwerp player may also have timed his comeback from injury to perfection amid ongoing interest from Celtic.
The 23-year-old, whose preferred position is on the left wing, was high on Brendan Rodgers’ wish list last summer until a serious muscle injury sidelined him for several months.
‘Two clubs (Celtic and Rennes) kept negotiating to possibly still bring him in,’ Antwerp CEO Sven Jaecques recently confirmed.
‘But, in the meantime, we know that such clubs will rather focus on January anyway.
‘He must now return as soon and as fit as possible and then we will see what happens.’
That return happened last week against Charleroi. The former Belgian Under-21 international showed no ill-effects and he appears to be back in the shop window.
A muscle injury then ruled the winger out of action between December 10 and February 4 then again from February 10 to March 4. Since then he has been injury free.
Last season he played in 1174 minutes in the Jupiler League consisting of starting 12 matches and coming off the bench in four.
This season he has started four matches for Antwerp playing in 347 of the available 360 minutes which would suggest that his muscle injuries are behind him.
After the late, late show of summer 2024 it seems that Nicholson is wanting to repeat that white knuckle ride with the added jeopardy of Celtic being involved in a Champions League Play Off.
Last year Adam Idah was signed on August 14 with Auston Trusty, Arne Engels and Luke McCowan on August 30, it was so unnecessary, all of those players could easily have been signed in June and July giving them either the pre-season trip to the USA to prepare or the one match a week August routine to settle in at Celtic.
If Balikwisha is signed he won’t meet his new team-mates until Thursday as they resume training post Kazakhstan, three days later there is a Glasgow Derby at Ibrox.
That is followed by an international break with UEFA fixtures coming thick and fast either side of further international breaks in October and November.
Rodgers knew that Kuhn was leaving before last season ended, now after seven pre-season matches and give competitive games it looks like he is about to have a winger added to his squad with around a week left to go before the transfer window closes.
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2 Comments
by Che
The problem is they don’t want to part with any money so the answers simple stop giving them your money
by Patrick McDade
You’re wrong about Yang. Given a run he will be a player for us. Much better in his last two appearances. The only forward that did anything positive against Kairat.