Sports
Celtic have a dream Tounekti upgrade who’s played 0 minutes all season
Celtic head coach Wilfried Nancy has already had to deal with an awful lot since he made the move from Columbus Crew to replace Brendan Rodgers in the dugout.
He lost his first four matches in charge of the Scottish Premiership giants, including the League Cup final to St Mirren, and finally picked up his first win against Aberdeen last weekend.
The French tactician has also had to deal with losing two of his wingers, Sebastian Tounekti and Michel-Ange Balikwisha, because of the African Cup of Nations, which has left him short-staffed in the wide areas.
Why Celtic need to sign a new winger in January
With the January transfer window around the corner, the Scottish giants should be looking to add another option in the wide areas to bolster the squad.
Whilst the system is now a 3-4-2-1 without any ‘natural’ wingers, the wing-backs play very high up the pitch, like wingers, and the two number tens behind the striker can also feel like wingers at times.
When Tounekti and Balikwisha return from international duty, Nancy will have plenty of options at his disposal, but it is the quality of those options that should come into question.
|
25/26 Premiership |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Appearances |
11 |
7 |
|
Goals |
1 |
0 |
|
Minutes per goal |
667 |
N/A |
|
Key passes per game |
1.5 |
0.4 |
|
Big chances created |
1 |
1 |
|
Assists |
0 |
1 |
|
Stats via Sofascore |
||
As you can see in the table above, the pair have combined for one goal and one assist in 18 appearances in the Premiership so far this season for the Hoops, which is a fairly dismal return in front of goal.
This is why the club should be looking to bolster their wide options in the January transfer window by bringing in another forward who can offer more quality at the top end of the pitch.
Whilst Celtic should look to sign a right-sided attacker to improve on Balikwisha, who has been utilised on the right and the left flank, they already have an upgrade on Tounekti in waiting at Parkhead.
The Celtic star who can be an upgrade on Sebastian Tounekti
In May earlier this year, Hoops forward Jota suffered an ACL injury that was expected to keep him out of action for around nine months, up to February 2026, which means that he has not played a single minute in the 2025/26 campaign yet.
Speaking to supporters earlier this month, the Portuguese attacker said that he thinks his recovery is “going the right way“, which, hopefully, means that he is on track to return in February.
If Jota is back and available for selection in February, Nancy does not have too long to wait to have a brilliant wide option available for selection, and one that would be a big upgrade on Tounekti.
Celtic paid £8m to sign the wide man from Rennes in the January transfer window at the start of this year, bringing him back to Parkhead for a second spell, but he only got to play 11 Premiership games before his injury.
In those 11 appearances, though, the former Al-Ittihad attacker showed the kind of form that supporters loved him for during his first spell, when he produced 25 goals and 23 assists in two seasons, per Sofascore.
Jota scored four goals, created three ‘big chances’, and registered two assists in seven starts in the league last season, per Sofascore, which means that he scored three more goals and produced twice as many assists as Tounekti and Balikwisha have managed combined so far this term.
|
24/25 Premiership |
Jota per 90 |
Rank vs wingers |
|---|---|---|
|
xG |
0.48 |
Top 8% |
|
Goals |
0.63 |
Top 6% |
|
Shots on target |
1.42 |
Top 6% |
|
xA |
0.37 |
Top 8% |
|
Assists |
0.32 |
Top 17% |
|
Chances created |
1.89 |
Top 25% |
As you can see in the table above, the Portuguese ace was one of the most productive wide players in the division in the 2024/25 campaign, ranking highly among his positional peers in a host of goalscoring and creative metrics.
This season, Tounekti is averaging 0.14 goals and 0.30 xA per 90 for Celtic in the Premiership, per FotMob, which shows that he has not been anywhere near as productive in front of goal as the currently injured star was.
Jota, who pundit Michael Stewart described as a “game-changer” who “raises the bar”, is a proven performer who has been there and done it for Celtic across two spells, which means that he is more or less a safe option for Nancy, as long as his injury does not have a major impact on his performance level.
Therefore, the 26-year-old wing wizard, who has not played a single minute this season due to injury, can return as a big upgrade on Tounekti and, as the winger Nancy currently lacks, when he returns to action at the start of 2026.
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