THE TRUTH ABOUT DAIZEN MAEDA CELTIC EXIT RUMORS
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 3 minutes ago
- 3 min read
There was a big story floating around the Celtic social media sphere yesterday, but I decided not to write a blog about it.
That story was the widely circulated piece by one particular blogger, which you may not have read since its behind a paywall, claiming to have inside knowledge that Daizen Maeda is leaving Celtic, his agent doesn’t want him to be risked in the upcoming Champions League qualifiers, and that the club have already accepted a fee.
Choosing not to cover the story at the time, may have been a mistake on my part, but perhaps after reading on, you’ll understand why I made that call.
No, Daizen Maeda Celtic Exit Isn’t Imminent, I Believe the Information Released Yesterday was Incorrect
In all honesty, I didn’t write about this yesterday for two reasons. One: I do not know anything about the person who wrote this piece, however, people whom I trust vouched that he is a reliable source and that he wouldn’t run a story this sensational unless he believed it was genuine.
That being said, in journalism, I don’t think “he’s usually on the money” is a strong enough endorsement to justify giving more bandwidth to a story that may or may not be true.
My second reason is that the blog in question was clearly written from a place of great anger. The author, who I won’t identify, singled out another prominent member of the Celtic online community for a lot of rather vitriolic criticism.
I know I’m being very non-specific with all this but those who wish to know can easily find the original piece online and therein you’ll know who I am talking about.
Personally, I think there’s enough toxicity online already and Celtic bloggers like myself and others have enough enemies from outwith the Celtic support already without doing anything to create division from within.
So, I hope that both the writer of the original blog and the person he clearly has issues with will both understand that I wish no quarrel with either of them.
I simply want to get to the truth, and so I’ve spent quite a bit of time today looking into this rumor over here in Japan, through my own, admittedly limited sources.
Firstly, if the information published and widely shared yesterday was correct, I simply cannot accept that not a single source in the Japanese media, not even the less reliable “gossip” pages on Twitter chose to look into it.
I think the reason they didn’t do so, is because they know there has been no movement on Daizen Maeda’s situation either way for the past few weeks.
Secondly, the one man who would probably know before most of us if such a deal was happening is Brendan Rodgers, and he confidently said he believes Daizen is staying, for the time being anyway.
I don’t doubt the integrity of the original writer. I would however question the veracity of the sources who provided them with this information. I think they wrote this story truly believing it to be genuine, but I also believe the information fed to them was wrong.
Whether that was a consequence of malice or misunderstanding, I don’t know, but the lack of any verifiable evidence is what leads me to my conclusion.
Of course, every journalist, every writer, every content creator, has the right to protect their sources. The original writer of this piece of speculative writing on Daizen Maeda’s Celtic future doesn’t need to justify themselves to me, or anyone else.
However, I think it’s important we distinguish between opinion and fact.
That writer’s opinion may be that Daizen Maeda is on the way out of Celtic and it’s already a done deal. However, in the absence of any concrete evidence whatsoever to back that up, I am forced, when I apply journalistic principles, to assume the story is false.
If the original writer or indeed any of his sources have solid evidence to the contrary then there are ways of disclosing this information whilst still protecting the confidentiality of sources. And I encourage them to do so at the earliest opportunity.
I will freely admit if I am wrong here.
However, I stand by my own journalistic assertion that this story is false.