Can Celtic book their place at Hampden?

On Sunday, the Hoops will face Glasgow neighbours Partick Thistle in a League Cup quarter-final at Firhill.

The Celts are League Cup holders, winning the competition in seven of the last nine seasons, so are huge favourites to progress through to the last four.

Considering the hosts sit third in the Scottish Championship, the Hoops having won each of their last eight encounters with the Jags, Brendan Rodgers surely has an opportunity to experiment, so should he start his “natural finisher”?

Kelechi Iheanacho's start to life at Celtic

Kelechi Iheanacho’s move to Celtic is the archetypal panic buy, if ever there has been one.

To end the transfer window, the Hoops sold their only senior out-and-out centre-forward, with Adam Idah joining Swansea City for £7m, with no replacement signed before the window closed.

So, having had his contract terminated by Sevilla, the Nigerian was able to move to Glasgow as a free agent, certainly having an instant impact, converting this stoppage-time penalty to snatch victory at Kilmarnock last Sunday.

Nevertheless, Iheanacho’s career has very much endured a downward trajectory in recent seasons, as documented below.

2025/26

20

1

2024/25

1,348

4

2023/24

1,111

6

2022/23

1,437

8

2021/22

2,214

8

2020/21

2,259

19

As the table outlines, since being at the peak of his powers at Leicester City during the lockdown season, Iheanacho has not been a regular goalscorer, with three of his four goals last season coming against Spanish amateur sides Las Rozas and UE Olot in the Copa del Rey.

The 28-year-old, reunited with Rodgers, will almost certainly score goals at Scottish Premiership level, but is surely lacking match fitness.

Also, will the Nigerian be a high-level difference maker, which he’ll need to be, with Celtic set to start their Europa League campaign against Crvena zvezda at Stadion Rajko Mitić in Belgrade on Wednesday?

So, ahead of that key fixture, should Rodgers try out an alternative centre-forward at Firhill?

Celtic's best centre-forward option

Among all the discourse surrounding Celtic’s attacking options, supporters furious about the lack of adequate replacements for Kyōgo Furuhashi and Nicolas Kühn, Johnny Kenny is often the forgotten man.

After joining the club from Sligo Rovers in 2022, Kenny featured for the club’s controversial B team in the Lowland League, before being loaned out to Queen’s Park, not making much of an impact there, but then very much showing what he was capable of back in Ireland with Shamrock Rovers.

In 76 appearances for the Dublin-based club, Kenny scored 26 goals, of which, notably, seven came in European competition.

Last season, he bagged braces against Víkingur Reykjavík and Borac Banja Luka, as well as scoring against Larne, The New Saints and Rapid Wien, helping Shamrock Rovers reach the knockout stages of the Conference League.

He then returned to Celtic in January, scoring goals against Livingston and Aberdeen, albeit his opportunities have been very limited, seeing just 291 minutes of action, only 96 of which have come this season.

His only start of the campaign, so far, came against Falkirk in the previous round of the League Cup, a resounding 4-1 victory, as Rodgers heavily rotated ahead of the ill-fated Champions League play-off against Kairat, which didn’t go quite so well.

Shortly after his integration in January, Rodgers labelled Kenny “absolutely brilliant”, later describing him as a “natural finisher”, forecasting that he will develop into a top-level striker.

Well, if the manager truly believes that, he needs to give the 22-year-old opportunities, so what better time to do so than a cup tie against lower-league opposition, one that comes three days before a crucial European tie?

Iheanacho was only fit enough to see 20 minutes off the bench at Rugby Park last Sunday, during which time he touched the ball only ten times.

Thus, the Nigerian surely won’t be ready to go this week, his services required far more in Belgrade on Wednesday, so Kenny more than deserves his chance to stake a claim for a spot that is very much up for grabs.