When the January transfer window opened, it was obvious Celtic needed to strengthen their attacking options. The summer had ended without the additional centre-forward Brendan Rodgers had wanted, and no replacement had been brought in for Nicolas Kuhn, who had contributed 24 goals in 69 appearances before his £16.5 million move to Como ahead of this campaign.
The only wide player added in January was Joel Mvuka, signed on loan from Ligue 1 side Lorient until the end of the season. Celtic had initially agreed a permanent deal worth £3 million before restructuring it as a loan with an option to buy for the same fee in the summer.
The problem is that Mvuka never looked like the right signing from the moment his name emerged. Celtic needed either a left-footed right winger or a genuinely productive wide player capable of contributing goals and assists consistently. They already had Hyunjun Yang and James Forrest, two right-footed right wingers who have both struggled with consistency, and needed a meaningful upgrade or a different profile entirely.
Mvuka fits neither description. He is another right-footed winger who plays on the right, adding nothing new to what Celtic already had. His career record at Bodo/Glimt and Lorient tells its own story, with three goals in a single season representing his personal best, and a maximum of six assists. Those numbers never suggested he was about to arrive at Celtic and produce the consistent goal contributions the club required. His time at Parkhead has done nothing to contradict that early scepticism. He has played just 86 minutes, failed to make the squad for a Premiership match under Martin O’Neill, and barely registered as a presence in the attacking setup.
However, Mvuka is not the only forward at Celtic who has failed to justify his place at the club. Michel-Ange Balikwisha, signed from Royal Antwerp last summer for £5 million, did not even make the matchday squad for the Scottish Cup quarter-final win over Rangers, the match in which Mvuka came off the bench to mixed reviews.
The logic behind signing Balikwisha was questionable from the start. Celtic retained Daizen Maeda, who had just won the Premiership Player of the Year award with 33 goals across all competitions, and who operates predominantly on the left flank. Despite keeping him, the club then signed both Sebastian Tounekti and Balikwisha, two more left wingers, on permanent deals in the same summer.
Tounekti has at least provided some value, contributing five goals and two assists across 36 appearances. Balikwisha has managed no goals and two assists in 14 appearances across all competitions, has not played a single Premiership minute since October, and has been absent from the matchday squad on 14 separate occasions. Five times he has been named as an unused substitute. Even accounting for his involvement in the African Cup of Nations, the picture is one of a player who has simply not done enough in training or in matches to convince the manager he deserves a role.
Given all of that, there is a strong argument that Balikwisha should not feature again this season. Continuing to include him serves little purpose for either party, and the most sensible outcome would be to sell or loan him with a view to a permanent departure, accepting that the £5 million investment has not worked out.
Whoever becomes Celtic’s next permanent manager will need to take a far more structured approach to recruitment. Identifying the specific profiles required in each position before entering the market, rather than adding players who overlap with what is already there, has to be the starting point. Avoiding the next Mvuka or Balikwisha begins with that kind of clarity.