After a disastrous transfer window, Celtic are left with a serious lack of firepower.

In the last 12 months, the Hoops have sold Nicolas Kühn, Kyōgo Furuhashi and Matt O'Riley who, between them, scored 136 goals for the club.

The lack of quality replacements has really come to the fore in recent weeks, as the Celts were dumped out of the Champions League in the play-off round by Kairat, both legs finishing goalless, even after extra time in Almaty, before last Sunday's Old Firm derby at Ibrox also produced no goals.

So, should the Celts have persisted with a striker whose value has increased by around 1000% since departing Glasgow?

Celtic's concerning striker situation

On Tuesday, 24 hours after the transfer window had closed, Celtic announced the signing of Kelechi Iheanacho, just ahead of the UEFA squad submission deadline.

This was made possible because Sevilla had terminated the Nigerian striker's contract, after he'd scored zero La Liga goals for los Nervionenses, suggesting they were not too devastated to lose him.

This last-minute move came about because Adam Idah was sold to Swansea City on deadline day for £7m, just a year after making his move to Parkhead permanent for £9.5m, following an explosive loan spell, but he was never able to hit those heights nor rekindle his peak form.

Celtic's number target to replace the Irishman was Kasper Dolberg, but they were unable to agree a fee with Anderlecht, while the Dane's preference was to re-join Ajax, getting his wish, with the Amsterdam-based giants paying €10m (around £8.6m) to bring him back to the Johan Cruijff Arena.

Kasper Dolberg.

So, Brendan Rodgers' first-choice striker will likely be Iheanacho until January at least, but would a forgotten former Celtic striker have been a substantial upgrade, had the Hoops held onto him?

Celtic's forgotten former striker now on fire

Back in January 2023, striker Oh Hyeon-gyu joined Celtic for £2.5m from K League side Suwon Samsung Bluewings, pretty much passing through Glasgow.

During an 18-month stint with the club, Oh did manage to score 12 goals, with a staggering 41 of his 47 appearances for the club coming as a substitute, hence why he averaged a goal every 120 minutes.

Thus, no tears were shed when he was sold to Genk for £4m in the summer of 2024, with most viewing this as a good piece of business, making a decent profit in a short period of time.

Well, the South Korean international has taken his game to a whole new level in Belgium, netting 14 times for the Smurfs to date, most recently on target during a 5-1 demolition of Lech Poznań in Europa League qualifying last month.

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Thus, earlier in the summer, Genk rejected a £9m bid from Feyenoord for Oh's services, claiming they were not prepared to sell both him and their other striker Tolu Arokodare, who has gone to Wolves.

However, on deadline day, after selling Nick Woltemade to Newcastle for almost £70m, Stuttgart agreed a huge £24m fee with Genk, with Celtic set for a lucrative windfall via a sizeable sell-on clause.

However, the deal collapsed due to an issue unearthed during Oh's medical, with die Schwaben discovering that the striker had suffered a serious cruciate ligament injury in his youth, battling against knee issues ever since, thereby unwilling to take the risk.

As a result, Oh will return to Genk, who will face Rangers in their Europa League opener at Ibrox on 25 September, while the striker is currently away with his country, coming off the bench during Korea Republic's 2-0 friendly victory over the United States in New Jersey on Saturday night.

So, how does the 24-year-old compare to Iheanacho, and would he represent a major upgrade on Celtic's current centre-forward?

As the table outlines, despite the fact he is three years younger, Oh has scored two more goals than Iheanacho since the start of the 2020/21 season, with 42% of the Nigerian's goals during this time frame coming in the first campaign, yet to reach double figures subsequently.

Oh, in contrast, is a player on the way up, preparing for next summer's World Cup, having netted four times during qualifying for the Taegeuk Warriors, bagging goals against Jordan, Iraq twice and Kuwait.

Celtic striker Hyeon-gyu Oh.

Thus, given that they had Kyōgo at the time, Oh was not given much of an opportunity during his time at Celtic, but would walk into the lineup these days, so should they have kept hold of him and nurtured him, considering his astronomical rise in value?