Brendan Rodgers continues to ship out players who are not part of his plans, or who no longer wish to play for the club. Today we hear that following the departures last week of Liel Abada and Alexandro Bernabei, the Celtic manager has now sanctioned a loan move that will see forgotten Japanese defender Yuki Kobayashi leave the club, initially on a six month loan deal.
It looked like Kobayashi would be leaving in the January window with a move to HJK Helsinki in Finland that the advanced stages before a shock collapse at the eleventh hour. That left Yuki in limbo as he is clearly not part of Brendan Rodgers’ plans. Now a report in respected Japanese outlet Sponichi confirms that Kobayashi has at last got a move away from Celtic, signing for top flight J-League outfit Kashima Antlers on a six-month loan deal.
The Sponichi report states:
It was confirmed by the 10th that Kashima will acquire Yuki Kobayashi (23), former U-22 Japan national team defender from Scottish First Division Celtic. According to multiple sources, the contract is expected to be for a limited period of six months.
Yuki Kobayashi was an Ange Postecoglou signing but the Australian gaffer didn’t use him often until the league was won last season and he was given run-out is the dead rubber at Ibrox and away to Easter Road with Celtic losing both those games 3-0 and 4-2 respectively.
Brendan Rodgers had a quick look on summer tour in Japan but Kobayashi picked up an injury and that was that as far as his time at Celtic is concerned. Kobayashi was highly rated in the J-League but it simply hasn’t been the right move for him, with the robust nature of the Scottish game something he found hard to deal with.
The more of the players that are not in the manager’s plans that can be moved on the better as it will allow him more flexibility to build his own Celtic team, starting this summer.
