Celtic could not break free of Aberdeen at the top of the Scottish Premiership table as they were held to a 2-2 draw at Parkhead on Saturday.
The Hoops and the Dons had both won their openng seven matches in the division ahead of the clash at Paradise over the weekend, but neither side could continue their perfect start.
Reo Hatate and Kyogo Furuhashi had the home team 2-0 ahead at the break, and on course to move three points clear, before goals from Ester Sokler and Graeme Shinnie in the second half rescued a point.
Brendan Rodgers will be hoping that his team can put daylight between themselves and Aberdeen over the coming months to move closer to a fourth straight title.
Captain Callum McGregor, who turned 31 in the summer, is gunning for his tenth Premiership title, having won nine – as part of a 22-trophy haul – in his Celtic career to date.
The former Scotland international, who retired from national duty after the 2024 European Championships, is the current skipper after taking over from iconic Hoops midfielder Scott Brown.
Scott Brown's Celtic career in numbers
In the summer of 2007, the Scottish giants swooped to sign the ‘exciting’ 21-year-old central midfielder from rivals Hibernian for a fee of £4.5m.
It was reported that Rangers were initially expected to secure a deal for the talented youngster, who had played 124 first-team matches for Hibs by the age of 21.
Celtic were able to steal a march on their fierce rivals and landed his services ahead of the 2007/08 campaign, for a record fee between two Scottish sides at the time.
The Scottish dynamo did not take any time to settle into life in Glasgow. In his debut season, Brown produced three goals and four assists in 34 appearances to help his team win the title.
He became a staple of the Celtic midfield for the next 14 years or so and racked up 46 goals and 63 assists in 615 appearances in all competitions before his move to Aberdeen in the summer of 2021.
In those 14 years, Brown won a staggering ten Premiership titles – a feat McGregor hopes to match this term – along with six SFA Cups and seven League Cups.
As the Scotland international, who was capped 55 times by his country, headed into the final years of his career at Parkhead, the club attempted to sign players with a view to being his long-term heir.
Celtic once thought they had found a dream replacement for Scott Brown when they swooped to sign Ivorian starlet Ismaila Soro at the start of 2020.
How much Celtic paid to sign Ismaila Soro
The Hoops reportedly splashed out a fee of £2m to sign the central midfielder from Bnei Yehuda in the January transfer window in the 2019/20 campaign, with Neil Lennon in charge at the time.
He endured a difficult start to his career in Scotland, as the youngster was not selected for a single Premiership game in the second half of the season.
At the start of his first full season with Celtic, Soro admitted that he had problems stepping into Brown’s shoes, as his understudy at the time, but that he remained in Glasgow during lockdown and worked hard to show Lennon that he had the quality to step up.
He claimed it was a “big challenge” to replace what Brown offered in midfield but added that he has a “strong” mentality and would work to make himself a worthy heir.
Appearances
19
31
Starts
11
25
Pass accuracy
90%
88%
Tackles + interceptions per game
3.1
2.8
Ground duel success rate
52%
53%
Aerial duel success rate
50%
58%
As you can see in the table above, Soro showed plenty of promise in his first Premiership season, which also happened to be Brown’s last in a Hoops jersey.
The Ivorian gem was more reliable than the veteran Scotsman in his use of the ball and made more tackles and interceptions combined per game on average, whilst winning a similar percentage of his duels on the ground.
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These statistics suggest that Celtic had a dream long-term heir to Brown on their hands, as he had already started to offer similar qualities and attributes as a combative midfield player in the 2020/21 campaign.
Ismaila Soro's Celtic struggles
Despite his promising form under Lennon in his first full campaign in the Premiership, Soro was unable to kick on and become Brown’s replacement after the captain left in the summer of 2021.
Ange Postecoglou came in to replace Lennon in the same summer and the Australian seemingly had different ideas for his midfield, signing James McCarthy ahead of the 2021/22 campaign, and then bringing in Matt O’Riley and Reo Hatate in the January transfer window.
Soro hardly got a look-in that season, featuring in eight Premiership games and starting one league game. In those eight games, the midfielder did not strengthen his case to play regularly, losing 65% of his duels and 76% of his ground duels in the division.
He also only featured in two of the club’s six Europa League group stage matches, as Postecoglou made it clear that the Ivorian was not a part of his long-term plans.
Soro was then sent out on loan to Arouca in Portugal for the 2022/23 campaign, in which he made 22 starts in the Liga Portugal, before being released for nothing in the summer of 2023.
Rodgers replaced Postecoglou that summer and seemingly did not want to give the 26-year-old another chance to impress, despite playing regularly in Portugal in the previous term, and allowed him to move on for nothing.
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Soro signed for Beitar Jerusalem on a free transfer and made 30 league starts during the 2023/24 campaign, which shows that he has finally emerged as a key player for a club.
Unfortunately, it did not work out for him as a replacement for Brown, after appearing to be his dream heir under Lennon, but he is now playing regularly again and still has plenty of time left, at the age of 26, to go on and enjoy a successful career.