Sold by Rodgers, now worth £22m more: Celtic messed up with prolific star
da brdice： Adam Idah’s Celtic journey came to an end on deadline day when he completed a permanent move to EFL Championship side Swansea City, just 12 months after his transfer to Parkhead.
da blaze casino： Swansea have agreed a deal worth up to £7m to sign the centre-forward from the Hoops, who agreed a deal worth up to £9.5m, and a guaranteed £8.5m, to sign him from Norwich last summer.
As you can see in the graphic above, Celtic signed Idah after he enjoyed a fruitful loan spell at Parkhead at the end of the 2023/24 campaign, scoring the winning the SFA Cup final as part of that.
The Irish forward joining on a permanent basis, though, led to Brendan Rodgers making the call to part ways with Hyeon-gyu Oh in the summer of 2024.
Hyeon-gyu Oh's Celtic career in numbers
Celtic paid a fee of £2.5m to sign the South Korean centre-forward from Suwon Bluewings in January 2023, during Ange Postecoglou’s spell in charge of the club.
The South Korea international scored seven goals in 21 matches under the Australian head coach in the second half of that campaign, in just 592 minutes of football, which included four goals in five matches during the top-six split in the Scottish Premiership, per Transfermarkt.
Oh scored five goals in 26 appearances for the club in his only full season with the Scottish giants, averaging a goal every 145 minutes, as per Transfermarkt.
Market Movers
Football FanCast’s Market Movers series explores the changing landscape of the modern transfer market. How much is your club’s star player or biggest flop worth today?
Despite Oh’s relatively impressive minute-to-goal ratio in his 18 months at Celtic, Rodgers opted to sign Idah permanently and sold the striker to Belgian side Genk for a fee of £2.3m, which has turned out to be a shocker of a decision.
Hyeon-gyu Oh's value has soared since leaving Celtic
The 24-year-old star’s transfer value has increased significantly since he left the Scottish giants for a fee of just £2.3m, thanks to his performances for Genk.
Oh scored nine goals and provided two assists in 684 minutes of league football for the Belgian side in the 2024/25 campaign, outperforming his xG of 6.95, per Sofascore.
24/25 Pro League
Hyeon-gyu Oh per 90
Percentile rank vs STs
xG
1.03
Top 1%
xG on target
1.31
Top 1%
Shots on target
3.10
Top 1%
Goals
1.33
Top 1%
xA
0.18
Top 9%
Assists
0.30
Top 5%
Stats via FotMob
As you can see in the table above, he was among the best goalscorers, if not the best, in the Pro League last term, whilst also excelling as a creative threat at the top end of the pitch.
His impressive form for Genk led to interest from Stuttgart after they sold Nick Woltemade to Newcastle United. It was reported that the German side were closing in on a £24m deal for the striker, before they backed out of a move because of concerns over an old ACL injury.
Whilst the transfer did not get done on deadline day, with the timing possibly influencing their decision to avoid the injury risk, it did show the value that Oh currently has in the market – £24m.
This means that the South Korean forward is currently worth £21.7m more than the £2.3m that Celtic sold him to Genk for last summer. Meanwhile, Idah, whose arrival pushed him out of Glasgow, went from an £8.5m to a £7m player based on his transfers within the last 12 months.
Therefore, Rodgers and Celtic had a howler in the striker position by signing Idah for big money instead of committing to developing Oh, who is now a highly-valued and prolific striker, based on his sublime statistics for Genk.
