Callum Osmand is not dressing up the task in front of him. Daizen Maeda left Celtic after four-and-a-half years in Glasgow, and Osmand admits the standard he set was extreme. Maeda scored nine goals in seven games to drag Celtic back from the brink and help fire them to another Double. Osmand, who scored the title-clinching goal against Hearts on the final day of last season, says the best he can do is offer glimpses of that same running.
The standard Maeda left behind
Speaking to the Daily Record, Callum Osmand was blunt about the comparison. “They are big boots to fill as Daizen offered something completely different to anyone else. Hopefully I can offer glimpses of what his running was like. That would be my goal to match his running, which is probably impossible!”
That is a fair way to frame it. Maeda was not just a scorer or a runner in the generic sense, he was a forward who changed games through repetition, aggression and work off the ball. Osmand is not pretending there is an easy like-for-like answer, and that honesty is better than pretending Celtic can simply swap one profile for another.
Celtic's new competition up front
Osmand also sounds comfortable with the pressure arriving around him. “At every club, you always have someone competing with you. It's good as it keeps us pushing each other to get better. You have to be playing better to get a game when there's more quality in the squad,” he said.
That competition has sharpened with the arrival of Kasper Høgh and Camilo Duran. Høgh comes in with Champions League pedigree after helping Bodo/Glimt reach the latter stages, and he has five goals in his last five Champions League matches. Duran has also made his mark against Europe's elite with Qarabag. Osmand, who scored in an Old Firm Premier Sports Cup semi-final, looks more like someone trying to thrive in the crowd than someone worried about being squeezed out.
Osmand said: “I feel way more part of it now than I did before.” That fits the mood around him. Celtic do not need him to be Maeda, because that probably is not possible. They do need him to take the standard seriously, and his comments suggest he understands exactly what that means.
Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →
