Kyogo Furuhashi Celtic exit fears addressed by Ange Postecoglou amid prospect of summer transfer bids

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou won’t fret over the possibility of losing Kyogo Furuhashi this summer.

Celtic striker Kyogo Furuhashi celebrates scoring against Rangers earlier this month, with his destructive derby form of late driving up his profile but causing no concerns over the potential transfer interest that could bring for his manager Ange Postecoglou.(Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

The prodigious performer has become a phenomenon in Scottish football. Top scoring in the domain with 29 goals this season - to take his tally in under two seasons, one injury curtailed, to 49 - he is understood to be attracting interest from English and German clubs. As a result, it seems inconceivable the 28-year-old will not attract bids in the coming months. Rebuffing such offers could be complicated by an inability to break into the Japan set-up that national manager Hajime Moriyasu has intimated was related to Furuhashi being berthed in Scotland.

Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final against ancient adversaries Rangers provides an opportunity for the Japanese frontman to further burnish his reputation beyond these borders - as he has with match-changing goal contributions in the previous three iterations of the country’s globally beamed fixture. No player from either side has netted in four derbies on the spin since John Collins in 1994. However, the Australian has no concerns over Furuhashi earning new admirers with his exploits at Hampden - even though he joked about being loath to praise the special talent following his double in the recent win over the Ibrox side over a reluctance he could alert potential suitors.

“I know what Kyogo is like,” said the Celtic manager. “If he is thinking about anything other than Sunday I would be very very surprised. And that’s the way we’ve got to do things. As I’ve said all along, my role in that is to keep preparing this team and those players to be the best they can be. Whatever comes along, you deal with it and you use it as an opportunity to continue what you have started. I don’t think about whether players will be here or not be here, what I look at is that they are here right now. And as long as they are here - and the hope is they are here for a very long time - I will push them to be the best they can be and they will get the most out of their football career. Kyogo is certainly one of those.”