The Celtic flop who was 'surplus to requirements' is now on fire after his departure

grant Celtic The business model of buying young players at a low cost, providing them with a platform on which they can perform and eventually selling them at a profit, the Hoops sees more turnover in the team than most.

Matt O'Riley is a prime example of this transfer strategy, arriving from Milton Keynes Dons for just £1.5m In January 2022, before it was sold to a company Brighton & Hove Albion for £25 million Last summer, a joint record signing was sold to a Scottish club, along with Kieran Tierney's move to… Arsenal in 2019 And Jota, who joined Union in 2023.

This merry-go-round has seen plenty of quality strikers don the famous hoops over the past decade or so, including Moussa Dembélé, Odsonne Edouard, Giorgos Giakoumakis and the current first-choice centre-forward. Kyojo Furuhashi For example, but not limited to.

Celtic often get their recruitment right, especially at the top end of the park, but that is certainly not always the case.

Celtic's worst transfer window ever?

Following the 2020 summer transfer window, Celtic posted the now-infamous tweet “I'm sitting there thinking… what a window”, mocking former striker Charlie Nicholas, Who criticized the club's recruitmentBut it turns out he was right.

Of the players pictured, Vassilis Barkas, Shane Duffy and Albian Ajeti were major flops, Diego Laxalt was a disappointment, David Turnbull was decent, albeit not quite living up to his potential, and Mohamed Elyounoussi was intermittently impressive, but without much Of consistency.

In fact, the Hoops' poor recruiting in 2020 extended into the pre-pandemic January window as well, Paid £2 million for Ishmael Soro services from Bnei Yehuda, while Patrick Klimala arrived from Jagiellonia Bialystok for £3.5 million.

With the world shutting down and football suspended just weeks after arriving in Glasgow, Klimala made just four appearances. A total of 101 minutesduring his first half-season at Celtic, but there was optimism that he could make an impact the following year after an impressive display in pre-season, most notably scoring the goal below against Nice.

Then score on opening day Premier League Season as the Bhoys beat Hamilton Accies 5-1, on goal shortly after being introduced as a substitute.

This was not the start of something, though, as Klimala scored just three times in 28 games during what proved to be a disastrous season, as Neil Lennon's side ended up losing, finishing 25 points behind Rangers, with 20/21 still the only season since 2010/2011 in which Celtic were not crowned champions.

The Polish striker left unceremoniously in April 2021, and was described as “surplus to requirements”. By Noel Whelan for Football Insidersold to New York Red Bulls for $4.8 millionwith Celtic remarkably making their money back, despite his unremarkable spell in Glasgow, with Klimala becoming something of a world traveler after that.

Patrik Klimala's post-Celtic career

Similar to Celtic, New York Red Bulls would certainly regret paying £3.5m for Klimala's services.

He was actually the team's top scorer with eight goals in 2021, as the New Jersey-based team finished 14th overall in the Major League Soccer standings, He scored only 14 goals in 63 matches Overall, he lost his starting spot as RBNY improves in 2022.

As a result, the following January, he was sold to Israel-based Hapoel Be'er Sheva. He scored four miserable goals in 23 matchesBefore his contract was mutually terminated at the end of 2023 after the escalation of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Your changes have been saved

Where are they now?

Your star or biggest flop has left the club, but what are they doing now? This article is part of Football FanCast's Where Are They Now series.

Ślesk Wrocław, who had returned to his native Poland, took a chance in Klimala, but it did not come to fruition. He failed to score in any of his 11 matches in the Ekstraklasa For the militia, so much so that he was overlooked by the reserve team, plying their trade in the Polish fourth tier, and unsurprisingly scored Four out of four are at this levelincluding a hat-trick against Gornik Bulkovich, but that would be just the beginning of the scoring spree.

In September 2024, Klimala joined A-League side Sydney FC Although he now plies his trade on the other side of the world, he seems to have found a home.

Now 26, he has scored seven goals in 11 appearances for the Sky Blues, getting the winner on his A-League debut, which happened to be a Sydney derby against Western Sydney Wanderers.

He scored in another Sydney derby win in late November as well, before continuing his goalscoring form in the defeat to the Central Coast Mariners on Sunday, with the Sky Blues sitting sixth in the A-League standings.

As shown in the table, the striker has flourished early in his career, so, while this does not suggest that Celtic should have kept him, it does underline that the player is not training at one club. Or four in this case, that doesn't mean they won't thrive at the right level and in the right environment.

Related to

Rangers vs Celtic: 8 of the best old League Cup finals

Rangers will take on Celtic in the League Cup final later this month, with the Glasgow rivals sharing some classics over the years.