Celtic will have to fight hard to keep hold of their best players during the summer transfer window, as teams are already circling around some of their top talents.
According to Sky Sports reporter Anthony Joseph, Italian side Como have made an approach to sign Nicolas Kuhn from the Scottish Premiership champions.
The journalist claims that the German winger is “in demand” and that German outfit RB Leipzig are also among the teams interested in a swoop to sign the 25-year-old star before the end of the summer transfer window.
Joseph adds, though, that the Hoops are in a strong position with the forward because he still has four years left to run on his contract at Parkhead.
Whilst losing Kuhn, who produced 13 goals and nine assists in the Premiership this season, would be a blow for the Scottish giants, Celtic must also be wary of losing their exciting young prospects.
The Hoops have been burned in the past by failing to keep hold of promising young players, and Ben Doak is one notable example of a starlet the club surely wished they had managed to keep.
Ben Doak's soaring market value since leaving Celtic
In the summer of 2022, the Scottish winger turned down a contract with the Bhoys and sealed a transfer to Premier League giants Liverpool on a ‘free transfer’.
The Reds had to pay a compensation fee of £600k for the young attacker, who had made two first-team appearances for the Hoops, and that deal has turned out to be a bargain for the English side.
Doak has only made ten appearances for Liverpool in three years, but played 24 games on loan at Middlesbrough this season and has been capped six times by Scotland.
At the time of writing, Transfermarkt values the 19-year-old winger at a whopping £12m, which is significantly more than the £600k that the Premier League team paid for him in 2022. This means that the Reds got a bargain deal and Celtic were left hard done by, as they did not get good value for his services.
Starts
21
Goals
3
Big chances created
7
xA
4.52
Key passes per game
1.9
Assists
7
Successful dribbles per game
1.5
As you can see in the table above, the teenage talent caught the eye with his performances on loan at Middlesbrough in the Championship this season, showing off his creativity on the right flank on a regular basis.
Overall, the Hoops will surely rue not being able to convince Doak to stay at Parkhead because he has thrived since leaving Scotland for a minimal fee, and they must now avoid a repeat of that with Johnny Kenny.
English club bid for Johnny Kenny
According to Sky Sports journalist Anthony Joseph, English League One side Bolton Wanderers have made an offer to sign the Irish centre-forward.
The reporter claims that Celtic have turned down a bid worth up to £500k from the third tier outfit for the young marksman, as they value him at more than that.
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Joseph adds that Bolton are expected to come back in with a second offer to land the former Shamrock Rovers number nine before the end of the summer transfer window.
However, the journalist reveals that the Premiership champions are not actively looking to cash in on the 22-year-old striker, although they could sanction a loan move later in the window if the right move comes up.
The Hoops must, now, maintain this stance because they could find themselves on the wrong end of another Doak repeat if they allow Kenny to leave the club for anywhere near the £500k bid that Bolton have made for him.
Why Celtic must not sell Johnny Kenny
The Scottish giants must keep hold of the Irish marksman and either keep him as part of the first-team squad or send him out on loan to a good level for the 2025/26 campaign, because he is a promising young talent.
Although he is a bit older than Doak was when he moved on from Glasgow, at the age of 22, he is still very young for a centre-forward and has shown plenty of promise already.
Kenny spent 2024 on loan at Shamrock Rovers in Ireland and caught the eye in his home country, scoring 13 goals in 29 Premier Division matches for the club.
The young attacker, who was dubbed “brilliant” by Brendan Rodgers, also impressed on the European stage with his contributions in front of goal in the Conference League in the first half of the 2024/25 campaign.
xG
3.78
Top 8%
xG on target
5.56
Top 6%
Goals
5
Top 9%
Shots on target
10
Top 8%
Assists
1
Top 39%
Dribbles completed
7
Top 13%
As you can see in the table above, the Celtic loanee ranked highly among strikers in the competition when it came to scoring goals and testing goalkeepers with high-quality shots, firing in 5.56 xG worth of shots on target.
His form for Shamrock Rovers led to Rodgers making him a part of the Celtic squad for the second half of the season, and Kenny showed that he has something to offer to the team in his limited Premiership minutes.
Kenny only played 159 minutes across eight games in the division for the Hoops, but still managed to score one goal and provide one assist, with his goal coming in the form of a header against Aberdeen, as shown in the clip above.
His statistics for Shamrock Rovers and in limited game time for Celtic show that he has the potential to develop into an effective centre-forward option for Rodgers, because he has scored goals when called upon, which is why cashing in on him for a minimal fee this summer would be a big mistake.
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Kenny could follow in Doak’s footsteps and soar in the value if he continues to improve and grow as a player if the club allow him to leave for a small fee, and that is why they must either keep him or loan him out this summer to ensure that they benefit from his development in the future.