Celtic sign £14m star and sell key player to Crystal Palace in bold January transfer window prediction

With the January transfer window fast approaching, Celtic may have some work to do. This season has, to say the least, not gone entirely according to a plan what with managerial changes and Hearts offering unexpectedly stiff opposition at the top of the Scottish Premiership table – and certainly Celtic are a side who could do wish a refresh up front.

But who will they sign to get the job done? With no way of knowing what’s going on inside the various decision makers’ heads, we decided to turn to the most accurate simulation of the footballing future available to us: Football Manager 2026.

We spun a save through to the end of the season to find out who Celtic signed in the winter window, and whether they might be useful signings in real life. Let’s find out how things unfolded, and wonder whether the virtual world might end up resembling the real one…

Celtic sign 10-goal striker in January – according to Football Manager

Konstantin Tyukavin - £14m from Dinamo Moscow: In real life, this would be a rather tricky signing to pull off given what’s going on with Russia right now – and it probably wouldn’t be an entirely uncontroversial move if it did take place. Still, with peace in Ukraine presumably ensured in the world of FM26, this wound up being a very sharp piece of business, with the 23-year-old Russian striker scoring 10 goals in just 15 league games after arriving in January. Celtic could do with a player like that in real life, but they may have to find someone else…

Kyriani Sabbe - £7.75m from Club Brugge: A young right-back signed as a future prospect, Sabbe is a Belgian Under-21 international who was given precisely zero league minutes at Parkhead after arriving for a fairly hefty fee. Clearly Celtic have some strange ideas about youth development in the game, especially given that he’s a real-life regular for Club Brugge at the age of 20. This would probably be a very good signing should it actually take place.

Keisuke Osaka – free from Hiroshima: Celtic made a change between the sticks in our game, getting Osaka without paying a penny and immediately supplanting Kasper Schmeichel with him. It looks like he played pretty well, too, so certainly a very nifty deal to have made in the game, and the kind of deal Celtic may need to do eventually in reality with Schmeichel getting a little longer in the tooth.

Daihachi Okamura – free agent: Deepening the Japanese connection even further, the 28-year-old defender was snapped up after his contract with Machida Zelvia expired and became a respectable back-up at Celtic Park, playing five league games before the end of the campaign. Given that no up-front fees were involved, you’d have to call that a win.

Daizen Maeda leaves Celtic in January transfer window prediction

Luke McNally – loan to buy for £9.5m from Bristol City: Celtic also dipped into the loan market twice in our save, signing Irish centre-half McNally from the Championship – but this deal didn’t work out so well. In nine appearances, the 26-year-old failed to impress and quickly became a depth piece, although Celtic were forced to sign him anyway for a hefty fee despite a slow start to life with the club on loan.

Lucas Mincarelli – loan to buy for £1.4m from Montpellier: Another young full-back signed more as a back-up than an immediate starter, but at least the obligatory purchase clause wasn’t too steep. By the summer he’d only made one start for his new club, but could turn out to be a savvy signing down the line of course. And that’s still one more start than Sabbe…

Daizen Maeda – loan to buy for £16.25m to Crystal Palace: The one player to leave (aside from youngsters heading out for some experience on loan) was, perhaps inevitably, Maeda, who went to Selhurst Park with on a loan-to-buy deal. Sad though it would be to see Maeda leave, Palace fans might be sadder still in our virtual world – he flopped rather badly in the Premier League and hadn’t scored a goal by the end of the season.