Celtic ended their 2024 winter transfer window with the dramatic late signing of Irish striker Adam Idah on loan until the end of the 2023/24 season. The acquisition of a new striker has been made to help push Brendan Rodgers side’s aspirations to win the Scottish Premiership title, as they’re just a few points clear of title challengers Rangers.
The signing of Idah hasn’t exactly lit up the mood of the Celtic fanbase. Some supporters have been left quite underwhelmed because of the 22-year-old’s questionable statistics for a centre-forward. In 99 appearances for Norwich City, Idah only scored 12 goals and he has only three goals in 22 matches for the Republic of Ireland national team.
For the 22-year-old, this is kind of a dream move because he has admitted to have been a Celtic fan when growing up in a family full of the Bhoys supporters. He will, however, need to work hard to prove his doubters wrong and be a success story at Celtic.
With that being said, something that stirred controversy over the signing of Idah actually has to do with what he did when posing in a new Celtic shirt for official announcement pictures. On Celtic’s Instagram account, they posted a picture of Idah pointing at an interesting tattoo on his left shoulder – with his arm full of different tattoos.
It’s clear that Idah has a weird fascination for tattoos and has a host of different ink on his body. However, in the official picture, he can be seen pointing to an Irish shamrock tattoo with the colours of the Republic of Ireland inked onto his left shoulder.
This is obviously a mark of pride for the Republic of Ireland striker and he’s had this tattoo done in his body to pay the ultimate homage to his nation. With that being said, Celtic are earning quite some resentment from a few supporters for their decision to proudly show this off on their social media handles.
A major reason for that is because Celtic might have the colours of the Irish and have actually been created by Irish immigrants in Scotland, it is still actually a Scottish club. They play in the Scottish Premiership and this little move seems a sly attempt at trying to showcase themselves as the prideful Irish club than their origin as a Scottish one.
To those replying with “he’s Irish fs” you are missing the point entirely.
— Liam (@Liam98__) February 2, 2024
I don’t have issue with him having a tricolour tat, I’m taking a dig at the media team who are urging him to flaunt it like a chav in a stone island jacket, if they done that we’d slaughter them.
Some also feel that this is disrespectful towards the Scottish Premiership and similar to if Rangers (taunted as the Huns by some) unveiled a new signing who proudly boasted a Union Jack tattoo – with Scotland trying to distance itself from being a part of England.
More than anything else, this appears to be a PR move from Celtic knowing that the signing of Idah probably wasn’t the one that their fans wanted on deadline day. They are trying to earn him more popularity among the patriotic Irish supporters and try to insinuate that Idah will be pouring his heart out for the badge because of his roots in Ireland and also due to his love for the club since his childhood.
With that being said, Idah has a long road ahead to prove that he was well worth the hassle of signing on deadline day. The 22-year-old scored six goals in 28 appearances for Norwich in the Championship this season, and has to produce way better numbers to win over the Bhoys’ faithful and also prove that they should sign him permanently in the summer.
