Celtic star who was an “outstanding find” is now a bigger flop than Palma
It feels like there is a lot of soul-searching and reflecting going on at Celtic after a third straight defeat to start Wilfried Nancy’s reign at Parkhead.
The Hoops boss has lost to Hearts, Roma, and St Mirren, becoming the first manager in the club’s history to lose his first three matches, as he has struggled to successfully implement his new 3-4-2-1 shape.
This run of poor results is not entirely Nancy’s fault, though, as Brendan Rodgers also left the club in second place in the Scottish Premiership earlier this season, which shows that there are deeper issues.
Recruitment is one area of the club that has come under fire, and rightly so. The wide areas, in particular, have not benefitted from outstanding recruitment work in recent seasons.
Ranking Celtic's wide options
Whether they are playing as wing-backs under Nancy or as wingers under Rodgers or Martin O’Neill, Celtic’s wide options have not provided enough quality this season.
Daizen Maeda and Benjamin Nygren, who have both played a lot of football in central positions, are the only wide players who have scored more than two goals or assisted more than two goals in the squad, per Transfemarkt.
It is hard, therefore, to look past those two stars as the best options to play out wide for the Hoops, yet they are currently needed in central positions, with Maeda up front and Nygren in midfield.
Benjamin Nygren
7
5
Daizen Maeda
6
5
Hyun-jun Yang
2
1
Sebastian Tounekti
2
0
Michel-Ange Balikwisha
0
2
James Forrest
0
0
As you can see in the table above, Hyun-jun Yang, with just three goal contributions, is the most productive winger after Maeda and Nygren.
James Forrest, unfortunately, has to rank at the bottom of the pile because of his failure to deliver any goals or assists, whilst Sebastian Tounekti and Michel-Ange Balikwisha have been equally as ineffective.
First Impressions
What did pundits and fans alike think about their new star signing when they arrived? Football FanCast’s ‘First Impressions’ series has everything you need.
Tounekti, in particular, has been frustrating because he had an electric start to life at Parkhead, yet now looks like an even bigger flop than Luis Palma.
Why Tounekti is a bigger Celtic flop than Palma
Celtic paid £3.5m to sign Palma from Aris in the summer of 2023, and he enjoyed a relatively impressive debut season in Scottish football, with ten goals and ten assists in all competitions, per Transfermarkt.
However, the Honduras international followed that up with no goals and no assists in 12 matches in the first half of the 2024/25 campaign, before being sent out on loan to Olympiacos last term and Lech Poznan this season.
Despite an eye-catching haul of six goals and seven assists in 24 matches for Lech Poznan, per Transfermarkt, it remains to be seen whether or not he has a future at Parkhead.
Tounekti, meanwhile, is looking like an even bigger flop for the club because his fast start to life at Parkhead lasted even less time than Palma’s did.
The Tunisia international scored in his second game for the club, against Partick Thistle, after a £5.2m move from Hammarby, and was described as an “outstanding find” by pundit Kris Boyd in the same month that he signed.
Since being dubbed an “outstanding find”, though, Tounekti has only managed a return of two goals and zero assists in 20 appearances in all competitions this season, per Sofascore.
The 23-year-old attacker has failed, as a left winger or as a wing-back on both sides, to prove that he can deliver consistent quality at the top end of the pitch for the Scottish Premiership giants.
Appearances
28
11
Goals
7
1
Minutes per goal
214
667
Big chances created
14
1
Key passes per game
2.4
1.5
Assists
9
0
As you can see in the table above, Palma’s debut season in the Premiership was significantly more impressive than what Tounekti has shown on the pitch so far this term.
These statistics show that the Tunisian attacker, who has now departed to play at the African Cup of Nations, has been nowhere near as effective as Palma was in his first season under Brendan Rodgers.
That is why Tounekti, who also cost almost £2m more, has been an even bigger flop than Palma at Parkhead, and he will need to turn his form around and deliver goals and assists on a regular basis when he is back from international duty to prove that is not the case.
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The Tunisia international needs to show Nancy, in the second half of the season, that he can be relied upon moving forward, or else he may also find himself in Palma’s position, needing a loan move away from the club.
