DAIZEN MAEDA OUT? TAISEI MIYASHIRO IN? HERE’S WHAT’S ACTUALLY GOING ON
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 3 minutes ago
- 3 min read
I woke up this morning to see a story doing the rounds on Celtic twitter and several other social media claiming that a “trusted source in Japan” alleges that Daizen Maeda is about to leave Celtic and Taisei Miyashiro is being lined up as his replacement.
Unfortunately, this is yet another case of mistranslation, misunderstanding, and in some case, sensationalist lying.
Celtic Taisei Miyashiro Rumors Gather Pace, But Not Connected to Daizen Maeda’s Future
The latest rumor comes via The Twitter account @Fukumitsu_F a self-described “football transfer analyst and freelance writer”. According to their own Twitter bio, this individual has, I’ll be generous and say, a somewhat scattershot reputation when it comes to getting “exclusives” that turn out to be accurate.
The fact that this tweet actually sat online for almost 2 days before anyone in the Scottish or Celtic media sphere noticed it, should tell its own story.
Something I’ve noticed doing the rounds this morning on some Celtic fan media outlets is the notion that “This is the guy who predicted Shin Yamada’s move to Celtic.”
Erm, sorry, no, he didn’t. It was known for several months in Japan that Yamada was a “player of interest” to Celtic, however, most Japanese media, unlike their Scottish counterparts have the good sense not to run a story based just on rumor.
Yamada himself confirmed this when he said he was first aware of Celtic’s moves to sign him as early as January of this year. It was a similar case with Hayato Inamura.
This “football transfer analyst”, who, as someone outside of the mainstream media sphere in Japan quite literally has about as much insider info as I do, gambled that this particular rumor, Shin Yamada to Celtic. was correct, and it turned out it was.
I would wager that he or she is doing the same thing again here. Taking two separate rumors and linking them together (without any primary sources or evidence of course), thereby elevating the rumors and, they hope, giving themselves some added credibility in the process.
Let’s look at the actual evidence out there.
First of all, NO MAJOR OUTLETS have picked up this story. Neither in Japan nor Scotland, and we all know that if there was even a chance this was true, the likes of The S*n and The Record would be all over it.
If even those rags won’t touch it, then I think we can assume its not happening.
Now, let’s look at the first-hand evidence. Every time Daizen Maeda has been asked about his Celtic future this summer, he has, to an almost monotonous extreme, reiterated time and time again that he’s looking forward to playing in the Champions League with Celtic.
The lack of a new contract is concerning, but he still has two years left, so it’s not reached the crisis stage yet. If we get to Christmas and there’s still been no movement, then I would, maybe start to worry.
Taisei Miyashiro to Celtic remains in the realms of “rumors” albeit a rumor that seems to be gaining some momentum, here in Japan anyway.
There is, of course, always the chance that some ridiculous offer will come in for Daizen and he’ll be off. Equally there’s a, I think much stronger, chance that Celtic will sign Taisei Miyashiro.
But Mr Fukumitsu, or whatever his real name is, has no idea if any of this is actually in the works or not.
Of course, if I am wrong then they are welcome to present any credible evidence they have to the contrary.
Just because an account has close to 40,000 followers doesn’t mean its any more reliable than your mate in the pub saying “I think...”
So, no, for the time being anyway, there’s nothing to suggest any change in Daizen Maeda’s current position at Celtic. Miyashiro remains a possibility, but if he comes in, it’ll be to play on the right wing, not to replace Maeda.