You rarely get time at a club like Celtic. Even if you get your chances early on, you need to take them. If you fail to do so, it does not take long for you to find yourself completely out of first-team plans. Just look at how things have turned out for Michel-Ange Balikwisha after his £5 million move in the summer.

So, it is quite rare to see someone fall out of the first-team picture at Celtic, and then bounce back to become a first-team starter.

Yang Hyun-jun is doing that at the moment though. Signed in the summer of 2023, he barely made his presence felt in his first season-and-a-half at Parkhead. In his debut campaign, he was handed just 1278 minutes of football.

He was unimpressive for the most part and rarely got off the bench at the start of the 24/25 campaign. He would find his way back into the team in the second half of the season though and showed flashes of quality. Ultimately, he finished with six goals and six assists in 1314 minutes.

It is in this campaign that Yang has truly come into his own. His brace against Motherwell did not come as any surprise, as he has been one of Celtic's best performers throughout the season. The South Korean winger has scored eight goals already and one would expect him to add to his tally, as he is now a nailed-on starter in Martin O'Neill's side.

It is very easy to forget how close Yang was to leaving Celtic. Last summer, rumours broke out that he had even travelled to England to complete a move to Birmingham City but it failed to materialise.

According to The Herald, Yang said about the failed move: "It’s true, I was very close to leaving – but it doesn’t matter any more.

"The transfer window is something every player needs to go through. Just because that move did not happen doesn’t mean I was sad about it.

"It just motivated me to practise and prepare even harder here. I think you can see that in the games and in my performances. I am very happy. All I want to do is focus on the team and trying to win every game.

"That’s what I have been doing and will continue to do. This is my third season here. The first two seasons were hard, maybe I didn’t play as much at times.

"But I feel it’s easier now. I am more confident with the language and I can communicate a lot better with staff and teammates. It has been very good. I am always talking with my team mates now as I have some English."

Unfortunately, it is this side of a transfer that often gets overlooked. Moving to a different continent can never be easy.

Players need time to adjust to a completely different culture. Naturally, that affects their performances on the pitch at times.

Yang's move to Birmingham City might have collapsed. But ultimately, it worked out for the better in the end. Now, he is a starting-level player at Celtic, and on merit, not because other players are injured or unavailable.

While a Celtic exit might have been close last summer, the club cannot even consider the idea of parting with Yang this time around. He is one of the few players they have who seems to be in form and capable of having a long-term future at the club.

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