How will Celtic react to suffering a rare defeat?
On Saturday, the Hoops were beaten 2-1 by Hibernian at Easter Road, with Daizen Maeda’s late equaliser controversially disallowed, because VAR adjudged that the ball had gone out of play; images are certainly inconclusive.
Nevertheless, no damage was done because, for just the fifth time in 15 years, Rangers and Celtic were both beaten on the same Premiership weekend, with St Mirren 2-0 winners later in the day on Saturday.
Brendan Rodgers’ side remain 13 points clear at the top, ahead of Aberdeen’s visit to Parkhead on Tuesday.
The main reasons behind that defeat? Well, VAR were perhaps to blame but left-back Greg Taylor, who was subbed at half-time didn’t cover himself in glory and the midfield was too lightweight with record signing Arne Engels slammed for a “passive” display by Glasgow World’s Ben Banks.
How they could have done with someone like Scott Brown or Victor Wanyama in the middle…
Victor Wanyama's Celtic career
Wanyama arrived at Celtic from Belgian club Beerschot for a reported fee of £900,000, and would leave two years later as a cult hero.
The Kenyan made 91 appearances in hoops, winning two Premiership titles and the Scottish Cup, earning wide-spread acclaim for his performances, with Ewan Murray of the Guardian praising his ‘string of high-level displays’ in the Champions League.
The most high-profile and famous of these came when Celtic beat Barcelona 2-1 at Parkhead in November 2012; Wanyama rising highest to head home the opener, while Jacob Steinberg of the Guardian notes that, up against Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and Lionel Messi, Wanyama was ‘the best player on the pitch’.
This saw the Celts sell the midfielder for £12.5m to Southampton in 2013, representing an enormous profit, before he then joined Tottenham for £11m in 2016.
During four years at Spurs, Wanyama made 97 appearances for the club, described by Harvey Byrne of Football Insider as ‘fantastic’, while Charlie Eccleshare of the Athletic believes he enjoyed the best form of his career in a Tottenham shirt, realising the potential Celtic supporters always knew he had.
Now 33-years-old, he’s a free agent, departing Club de Foot Montréal following the conclusion of the most recent MLS season in October having, as Joe Lowery of Total Soccer Show puts it, offered the Canadian club basically nothing, despite being their highest-paid player.
So, while the Kenyan now finds himself in the wilderness, the same can certainly be said of an ex-Celtic midfielder, once touted as the next Wanyama.
What happened to Celtic's forgotten midfielder
Eboue Kouassi joined the Hoops from Russian Premier League side Krasnodar for £2.8m in January 2017, with Graeme McGarry of the Herald expecting the defensive midfielder to ‘walk into the Celtic first team’, believing he could be the next Victor Wanyama, adding the club are likely to see a huge return in their initial investment.
He wasn’t the only one, with manager Brendan Rodgers claiming the Ivorian reminded him of £108m mega star Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling, stating “within 10 seconds you see his talent.”
Well, suffice to say this did not come to pass, with Kouassi making just 22 appearances in hoops, only 12 of which were starts, totalling less than 1,000 minutes.
This is largely due to the fact he ruptured his ACL during a League Cup semi-final victory over Hearts at Murrayfield in October 2018, never seen in hoops again, and joined Genk, initially on loan, before being sold for £1.3m.
Where Are They Now
Fair to say Kouassi’s career has never recovered from that moment, as this table outlines.
Krasnodar
2016-17
19
0
Celtic
2017-20
22
135
Genk
2020-2023
22
74
Arouca
2023-25
53
38
União de Leiria
2025-present
1
1
The Ivorian did rediscover some form and fitness at Arouca, albeit he didn’t make a single appearance for them during the first half of this season, so joined second-tier Portuguese side União de Leiria during the January transfer window.
Now worth just £600k, according to Transfermarkt, he made his Liga Portugal 2 debut earlier this month, before being an unused substitute against Marítimo on Saturday.
Now 27, Kouassi should be in the prime of his career, so few could’ve forecast he’d be struggling for minutes in the Portuguese second tier when he first landed in Glasgow to so much hype and expectation.
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