Some Celtic fans have got into a bit of a flap over Daizen Maeda being linked with a move to Brentford.
Sure, the Japanese internationalist is a top performer, true Brentford have a very detailed and successful scouting model but beyond that there is nothing to the story beyond the wishful thinking of a third rate self-style Transfer Specialist.
Fraser Fletcher is your man.
For no obvious reason he spent some time inside BBC Scotland, groomed by Kenny Macintyre, Alasdair Lamont, Tom English and others before passing through a few Ibrox fan media outlets.
That led to the big breakthrough with the notorious Football Insider site, when they rumbled him he found a fresh home at TeamTalk where there is a very definite way of working.
Speculating on ways to weaken Celtic seems to be Fletcher’s speciality.
A classic from Fletcher two years ago on the back of a wind-up from a Celtic fan following Jota’s transfer to Al Ittihad
On June 5 Fletcher told visitors to Teamtalk:
Brentford are the frontrunners to sign Nicolas Kuhn, sources have told TEAMtalk, with the Bees targeting the in-demand Celtic winger to replace Bryan Mbeumo as Manchester United ramp up their efforts to bring the Cameroon attacker to Old Trafford.
On July 18, using the same template Fletch explained on Teamtalk:
Brentford have identified Celtic’s deadly striker Daizen Maeda as a prime candidate to replace Yoane Wissa, who is attracting significant interest from Premier League rivals Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur, sources have confirmed to TEAMtalk.
Almost certainly the same source has come up with both stories, that source is Wishful Thinking, a close friend of Fletcher.
Add in teams like Manchester United and Tottenham to the story and your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) will soar. And you can usually count on your mates at BBC Scotland to include the fantasy in their morning Gossip page.
At the same time as he is hoping that Celtic lose their best players he is conjuring up tales of £30m bids for Nicky Raskin with Leeds and Aston Villa battling it out.
Kuhn has been sold to Como, not Brentford for real money, Raskin will be in a squad alongside Connor Barron and Lyall Cameron to face Panathinaikos on Tuesday.
After an outstanding season at Celtic and with two years left on his contract it is natural that there will be speculation over Maeda’s future.
Turning 28 in October with Japan already qualified for next summer’s World Cup Finals this summer is a critical time in his career, there probably won’t be another transfer window quite like this one.
To the surprise of no-one Maeda has started his pre-season preparations in time honoured fashion- at full intensity.
He started against Sporting Lisbon and Newcastle less than four days apart, playing 60 minutes in each match as he gave full-backs the sort of work out that they are unlikely to have repeated in their domestic campaigns ahead.
Having sold Kuhn and with Jota injured even the Celtic board will know that selling Maeda would be suicidal to this season’s prospects.
Fletcher prefers not to consider that, if he can publish bad news for Celtic he’ll be all over it, like a dog with a bone.
Padding out his Maeda fantasy to hit SEO targets he added:
His pace, versatility, and relentless pressing have caught the eye of several Premier League clubs, including West Ham United, Everton, and Tottenham, but Brentford are pushing to secure his signature. Valued at £25m by Celtic – as TEAMtalk revealed on Thursday – Maeda’s high-energy style and goal-scoring prowess make him an ideal fit for Brentford’s dynamic system under new head coach Keith Andrews.
That seemed kind of familiar to his Kuhn story six weeks earlier:
Kuhn’s performances have also caught the eye of Bundesliga clubs and Brighton and Hove Albion, although the Seagulls have yet to make concrete moves.
TEAMtalk also understands that three unnamed Premier League sides are monitoring the winger, adding to the growing competition for his signature
Although Celtic are reluctant to part ways with their prized asset, sources has told TEAMtalk that bids of around £20 million could prove difficult to reject, given the financial allure of the Premier League and Celtic’s policy to sell for profit.
So we had Bundesliga clubs, Brentford, Brighton and three un-named EPL clubs all on the trail of Kuhn who joined Como. Even by covering as many bases as possible Fletcher was miles off the pace with the Kuhn story.
It would be foolish to think that there isn’t a price tag on the head of every Celtic player, especially those that shone in the Champions League last season.
But it would be even more foolish to think that ‘transfer expert’ Fletcher has any contacts inside football let alone someone feeding him the inside track on Celtic’s likely business.
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