£7m Celtic flop is fast becoming another Mvuka

Celtic forward Joel Mvuka missed out on the matchday squad once again for the 3-1 win over Falkirk in the Scottish Premiership at Parkhead on Saturday.

The Hoops signed the attacker on loan from Lorient at the end of the January transfer window to bolster Martin O’Neill‘s options at the top end of the pitch, but he has not made any impact on the pitch since joining.

Mvuka has not made a single squad in the Premiership for the club since his loan move from the French side, whilst he has also played just two times in the SFA Cup.

The 23-year-old winger started in the 2-1 cup win over Dundee and was substituted at half-time, whilst he played 41 minutes off the bench against Rangers in the quarter-finals of the competition.

O’Neill seemingly does not rate the Norwegian forward enough to get in ahead of the other options that he has at his disposal, but that should not come as a surprise to anyone.

Why Joel Mvuka was never going to be a success at Celtic

Everyone uses the phrase ‘with the benefit of hindsight’ when discussing how a player flopped at a club, but hindsight was not needed with the signing of Mvuka from Lorient.

It did not seem to be a logical move at the time of the transfer for several reasons, most notably that he has struggled for consistency at the top end of the pitch throughout his career.

The 23-year-old flop produced three goals and zero assists in 52 league appearances for Lorient, including 30 matches in Ligue 2 and 22 matches in Ligue 1, which shows that he was not effective as a scorer or a creator of goals.

Celtic also already had two right-footed right wingers, in Yang and Forrest, in the building and Mvuka did not add anything unique in that position, as another right-footed player.

Instead of signing a left-footed option to add a different dimension to the squad, the Hoops signed another similar profile, but with incredibly underwhelming attacking output.

It, therefore, feels like Mvuka was destined to fail at Parkhead because he was not what the squad needed at the time of his arrival, and it has played out as badly as could have been predicted.

The Celtic forward who is becoming the club’s next Joel Mvuka

The Norwegian youngster is not the only winter signing who has struggled since making the move to Scotland in an attempt to add more firerpower to O’Neill’s ranks.

Tomas Cvancara is quickly becoming Celtic’s next Mvuka after he was left out of the matchday squad for the 3-1 win over Falkirk, after also being left out of the squad for the SFA Cup semi-final clash with St Mirren.

That means that the Czechia international has played zero minutes in three of the club’s last seven matches, and has only played more than 60 minutes in two of the last ten games in all competitions.

Celtic signed the attacker on loan from Borussia Monchengladbach during the January transfer window to lead the line for them, but he has only scored one non-penalty goal in 13 appearances so far.

Cvancara has scored two goals from 4.20 xG in nine appearances in the Premiership, with one of those goals coming from the penalty spot, and this illustrates how wasteful he has been with the chances that have come his way.

The Hoops have an option to sign the centre-forward on a permanent deal for a fee of £7m at the end of the season, but his underwhelming form for the club suggests that they should not pay that fee to bring him back in the summer.

Cvancara has become the new Mvuka at Parkhead with his exclusion from the squad in the last two games, as it is becoming clear that O’Neill does not rate him enough to be a reliable striker for the club.

Michel-Ange Balikwisha, Junior Adamu, Cvancara, and Mvuka are all signings from this season who failed to make the matchday squad against Falkirk, and they need to learn lessons from these failures ahead of the next window.

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