This summer was always going to be one of change for Celtic. They had gone trophyless and finished 25 points behind the Rangers in the previous season. And a number of players departed the club as well.
Thus, the club had to bring in a number of new faces. Overall, twelve new players arrived at Celtic, ten on a permanent basis and two on loan with an option to buy included in both the deals.
One area that they definitely needed to strengthen in was right-back. At one point of time, Anthony Ralston was the only option there. And one has to admit that Celtic did a great job bringing in Josip Juranovic, a Croatian international who is coming off of a very impressive season at club level as well.
Before the Juranovic signing took place though, the Hoops were being linked with a move for Manchester City’s Yan Couto. In fact, he was even in attendance at Celtic Park on one occasion and it certainly appeared that a loan move might be on the cards. But it did not materialise and now it appears we know why.
Why Manchester City’s Yan Couto did not join Celtic
Couto has gone on to join Braga on loan since then. And it looks like the language barrier played a huge part in that. While speaking on Clyde Superscoreboard and as reported by The Celtic Star, Gary Caldwell said regarding the situation:
"”He felt like the language barrier would have been a big thing and he has settled quickly in Portugal.“So he has probably made the right decision for his career development but he did mention when he was out of the stadium, the supporters, he said it was incredible.”"
Couto was only expected to come on loan in order to develop further before returning to Manchester City. Thus, for him, it was probably the right decision to go to a club where he would fit in much quicker.
On the other hand, Celtic cannot complain about their options at the moment at right-back either. In fact, one could easily argue that signing Juranovic on a permanent basis was a much better long-term move than bringing in Couto on a season-long loan.