Celtic have signed a number of players from the J1 League in recent times and the latest one being linked with the club is Tomoki Iwata of Yokohama F. Marinos. It is safe to say that Ange Postecoglou will know him well, having managed him during his time in Japan and the defensive midfielder is coming off of a standout season.
Yokohama F. Marinos won the J1 League this time around, and Iwata was one of the key figures behind their triumph. In fact, he took home the Most Valuable Player award.
Thus, it is not hard to understand why Postecoglou might be interested in reuniting with Iwata in Glasgow. Now, it remains to be seen what the future holds.
When asked about Iwata, Postecoglou dropped what can be interpreted as a bit of a transfer tease. As reported by The Herald, the Celtic boss said:
"“We’ll see what Santa brings.”"
Postecoglou appears to drop potential Iwata to Celtic transfer tease ahead of Christmas
If the club are able to sign Iwata, he would be their sixth signing from the J1 League since the arrival of Postecoglou as manager. The previous five are Kyogo Furuhashi, Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda, Yosuke Ideguchi and Yuki Kobayashi.
Thus, there have been some people who have questioned whether the club are over relying on signing talents from the J1 League. But then, the game against St Johnstone was proof that these signings have worked, as Kyogo and Hatate ended up scoring a brace each on the Hoops’ way to a 4-1 victory.
The fact of the matter is that if the players are good enough then it should not matter which league or continent they are coming from. While there were questions about Japanese players adjusting to the Scottish game initially, most of them have done very well since arriving.
Kyogo and Hatate have been superhits, Maeda has been pretty good as well and the only move that has not worked out is the one for Ideguchi. Kobayashi is yet to play and so we don’t know how that will turn out.