Celtic’s lack of top-end attacking talent was made abundantly clear in their biggest game of the season.
On Wednesday night, the Hoops were held to a dire goalless draw by Kairat at Parkhead in the first leg of their Champions League play-off, having just three shots on target all night and mustering a solitary big chance.
Thus, next Tuesday evening, Brendan Rodgers’ side must win in Kazakhstan, something the Celts have never previously achieved in three attempts, losing two of them, to book their place in the Champions League league phase.
Raucous chants of ‘sack the board’ could be heard throughout the second half of Wednesday’s, potentially disastrous, draw, with supporters frustrated by the club’s lack of spending, but could that be about to change?
Celtic's lack of attacking options
For the crucial mid-week tie against Kairat, Rodgers deployed a front three of Daizen Maeda, Adam Idah, and James Forrest.
After a less-than-productive first half, Idah was hooked at the interval, with Maeda deployed down the middle, and Yang Hyun-Jun was introduced.
Within seconds of the restart, Yang found Forrest, who forced Aleksandr Zarutskiy into a very smart save down to his left, but this was followed by little else, with unproven summer signing Shin Yamada thrown on towards the end, but this merely underlined Rodgers’ lack of proven options in forward areas.
As they seek to address this, according to Dutch outlet Voetbal International, as relayed by Daily Record, Celtic have been told the fee they’ll need to pay to secure the signature of Calvin Stengs.
They claim that Feyenoord are ‘willing to cooperate in a sale’ for a player whom they value at £5.1m, but it remains to be seen whether or not the Premiership champions are willing to pay the asking price at this moment in time.
55 years ago, Celtic and Feyenoord met in the European Cup Final at San Siro, but just six men have represented both clubs, namely Colin Kazim-Richards, Regi Blinker, John Guidetti, Glenn Loovens, Pierre van Hooijdonk and, of course, the king of kings himself Henrik Larsson, so could Stengs add his name to that list?
What Calvin Stengs would bring to Celtic
Stengs joined AZ Alkmaar as an 11-year-old, and his senior breakthrough came while representing the Cheese Farmers, scoring 24 goals and registering 22 assists in 113 appearances for AZ, with five of these goals coming in Europe.
This earned him an £8.6m move to Nice in the summer of 2021, but he made almost no impact on the French Riviera, scoring just a solitary goal during his one season with the Ligue 1 outfit.
After a decent campaign on loan at Royal Antwerp, scoring three goals but racking up nine assists in Belgium, he returned to the Netherlands by joining Feyenoord, thereby reuniting with Arne Slot, who’d previously been his manager in Alkmaar.
As the table below outlines, Stengs certainly produced impressive statistics during his first Eredivisie season in Rotterdam.
Minutes
2,095
113th
Goals
6
40th
Assists
12
3rd
Expected assists
8.6
3rd
Shots
44
47th
Key passes
71
2nd
Shot-creating actions
129
6th
Goal-creating actions
17
6th
Big chances created
13
6th
Accurate final 3rd passes
397
14th
Average SofaScore rating
7.51
7th
As the table documents, despite somewhat limited minutes, Stengs was one of the chief creators in the Eredivisie, ending up third for assists, while also ranking highly for expected assists, key passes, shot-creating actions, and big chances created.
The highlight of his Feyenoord career actually came against Celtic, marking his Champions League debut by scoring this long-range free kick at De Kuip, one that Joe Hart believes he should’ve kept out.
Last season, however, things did not go to plan for Stengs, seeing a miserly 797 minutes of action due to knee, hamstring and ankle issues, starting just eight matches across all competitions.
To commence the new campaign, the 26-year-old has been an unused substitute for all four of Feyenoord’s fixtures, including both legs of their Champions League qualifying exit at the hands of Fenerbahçe, as manager Robin van Persie seemingly prepares for the winger’s departure.
Nevertheless, he is still a highly-rated talent.
Jacek Kulig of Football Talent Scout labels him a “flamboyant winger”, praising his pace, dribbling ability, and creativity, while Nils Mackay of Opta adds that he is a “serious talent”.
Stengs is certainly a versatile player, predominantly deployed as an attacking midfielder during his time with Feyenoord, having made a name for himself as a right-winger at AZ, earning all eight of his senior Netherlands caps in that position out wide too, most recently bagging a hat-trick against Gibraltar at Estádio Algarve.
Following the sale of Nicolas Kühn, the aforementioned Forrest is currently Celtic’s starter wide-right but, at 34 years old, having scored just one goal last season, the club legend is no longer the elite-level difference-maker he once was.
Thus, there is a clear spot up for grabs, one that Stengs could come in and make his own, and all available evidence suggests he would be an excellent addition, which would result in Forrest dropping down to the bench after he started the last two games in the Premiership and the Champions League on the right flank.