By Alistair Gordon

Copyright glasgowworld

Stewart believes Celtic’s new man’s ‘quality link-up play’ is better than Kyogo, Daizen Maeda and Adam Idah’s. Despite ongoing protests against the board in the stands, Celtic stuck to the task at hand against Partick Thistle in the League Cup, as they hammered the Maryhill side 4-0. Goals from Yang Hyun-jun, Liam Scales, Sebastian Tounekti and Luke McCowan were enough to seal the win on the day. Tounekti in particular looks to be a real find for Brendan Rodgers. The Tunisian winger was signed from Swedish side, Hammarby on what was a chaotic Deadline Day at Parkhead. The Celtic board were criticised for not signing replacement strikers for Kyogo Furuhashi and Adam Idah during the window. Instead, Celtic were forced to delve into the free agent market, where they signed Kelechi Iheanacho. However, after the Nigerian International scored the winner against Kilmarnock then followed that up with a good performance at Firhill, perhaps it could be a blessing in disguise Celtic acquired his signature. Former Hearts captain, Michael Stewart believes Iheanacho is better at one aspect of being a striker than any of Celtic’s previous recent number nines. Speaking alongside Alan Hutton on the Premier Sport’s Scottish Football Social Club, he thinks the new additions that Celtic have made look sharp. Stewart said: “you look at Iheanacho, you think to yourself, he’s going to have to get up to speed and he will, but you see the quality in terms of his link-up play is clear, it’s there. That’s not something that Celtic have had, even before with Kyogo, it wasn’t one of his real strengths. You look at Maeda, it’s not one of his strengths and Adam Idah could do it, but he was inconsistent, whereas I think you see with Iheanacho, that is something he’s really good at. “He had some really, really nice touches. He’s got good awareness and vision of what’s around him, so it brings a different dynamic to their side and clearly, with Tounekti this guy’s the difference-maker. He really is.” The Premier Sports pundit also believes that if Celtic had made their additions earlier in the window, they may still have been in the Champions League. He said: “if for example it took a couple of extra million quid to get that deal done (Tounekti) three weeks earlier, it would have been worth it. “You look at the energy there and you say to yourself, him coming and joining Celtic, like he has now, full of confidence and belief and he’d have been excited about joining a big new club, going into the Champions League qualifier. “I asked that of Brendan Rodgers yesterday and understandably the manager was wanting to look ahead. He didn’t want to continually look back but I’ll guarantee you, privately, he’d have been thinking, if he was in the team, they would have stood a far greater opportunity of beating Kairat, especially at home.” Your next Celtic read: Celtic and Red Star Belgrade most valuable XI: Eight Hoops stars and seven-goal rival midfielder named