In July 2025, Japanese national team forward Yamada Arata, who joined the E-1 Championship, moved to Scottish first division Celtic from Kawasaki Frontale. The transfer fee, which is estimated to be around 300 million yen, sparked a stir, but it appears that manager Brendan Rogers did not want to acquire the player. There have been reports of conflicts within Celtic over its reinforcement policy.
Local journalist Andrew Smith confessed on the 2nd about Celtic’s internal affairs regarding the reinforcement strategy. Something strange has already happened, with defender Inamura Junsho, who joined from Albirex Niigata, reporting that he may have an unplanned or a transfer on a deadline, but he said:
“There are players (of Celtic’s new players) who joined the club’s largest shareholder, Dermot Desmond, rather than being acquired by manager Rogers. Desmond has more of a say in the football director than anyone else (within the club). (In the summer of 2024) he says, ‘I think we should get Luke McCowan,’ so the club is signing MacCowan too.”
“Yamada and Inamura are the same. Coach Rogers never wanted to sign them, but it’s like, ‘If the club brings them in, there’s no choice.’ They’re not either of them being coach Rogers. There was a conflict between Desmond and Coach Rogers.”
Although Yamada was not playing in the opening game of the Scotland First Division league in the 2025/26 season, he played for about 25 minutes in the second round, which was held on August 10th. He was on the pitch midway through the second round of the League Cup, the first leg of the Champions League playoffs, and the derby match against the Rangers on the 31st, but he still has no goal for the first time since his transfer. On the ground, it has been pointed out that Yamada and other forwards lack the decisive power.
After scoring 19 goals in the J1 League in his second year as a professional season in 2024, Yamada scored two goals in 21 league games in the 2025 season, failing to produce results even before he transferred to Celtic. If this continues, there may be some opinions that the player’s performance is not worth the transfer fee, which is expected to be 1.5 million pounds (about 300 million yen), but it can be said that the discrepancies in opinions regarding Celtic’s internal reinforcement strategy have an impact on Yamada’s future.
