Brendan Rodgers has revealed that Kyogo Furuhashi asked to leave Celtic several months ago, but is confident the club will emerge from the January transfer window stronger than ever.
Furuhashi has been in France for the past few days finalizing a £10m move to Ligue 1 club Rennes.
Rodgers has confirmed that he expects the deal to be completed imminently, with Portuguese winger Jota heading in the opposite direction and returning from Rennes for a fee of around £8.5m.
The news of Furuhashi's departure will have come as a blow to Celtic fans, despite the club securing Champions League qualification with victory over Young Boys on Wednesday night.
But Rodgers made it clear that the Japanese striker had asked to leave at the start of the season.
The move was ultimately driven by Furuhashi, and Celtic are ready to cash in on a player they signed for £4.5m in the summer of 2021.
Furuhashi and Rodgers hug after the Japanese was substituted against Young Boys
Furuhashi has scored 85 goals in 165 games for Celtic and leaves as an icon of the modern club.
Furuhashi and Jota are set to swap places, with Kyogo going to Rennes and Jota moving to Celtic.
“Kyogo had expressed an interest in leaving several months ago,” said Rodgers, whose side host Dundee in the Premiership this afternoon.
'Obviously then that expression gets stronger and then it gets to this stage where it clearly wants to leave. Then we have to come to an agreement and try to close it for him.
“He has been an incredible player for the club in the three and a half years he has been here and, as I said, he is not someone we would want to lose.”
“But we have to accept where he is and, after the work he has done for Celtic, his age and where he is, we have to accept it.
'We were reluctant to sell. He is one of our best players and someone who fits perfectly into our way of playing. But Kyogo expressed interest in leaving a few months ago.
'This football club has seen many talented footballers come and go. Part of the great success of this club is that we teach the players, we develop them and then they have the option to stay or move on.
“When they advance, the opportunity opens up for another player. That's been the culture here at Celtic.
Furuhashi has been a big part of Celtic's Champions League run but is ready to leave
“Kyogo has been an absolutely brilliant player for this club for three and a half years. “From the moment he came on, he's had a lot of fantastic moments on the pitch with the fans.”
When asked if there was a specific reason behind Furuhashi's desire to leave, Rodgers believes the new challenge of playing in one of Europe's biggest leagues may have been a factor.
“The races are short,” he said. 'Kyogo is now 30 years old and players want these new challenges.
“He has achieved a lot here at Celtic, but that opportunity at this point in his career to break into what would be a top five league was something that was perhaps too good to turn down.
'I think it was more of a new thing for him, a new challenge. He obviously loves the club, loves everything about being here.
'But players' careers are short. “As much as we want to convince them to stay here, the moment they want to move and the representatives say they want to do it, then we will have to do what is best for the club.”
Jota was a fan favorite at Celtic after winning five of six trophies during his time at the club.
Mathias Kvistgaarden, scorer of Brondby's goal against Legia Warsaw, is back on Celtic's radar
Celtic hope to complete a deal for Jota in the next 24 hours and are also set to renew their interest in £10million Brondby striker Mathias Kvistgaarden.
With Kieran Tierney also close to returning, Rodgers is confident the club will ultimately emerge from the January window in a stronger position despite the loss of Kyogo.
“In terms of Kyogo, it's been in the works for a while, so there's a lot of work behind the scenes and hopefully we can get someone to add that strength to our team,” he said.
'It's not something that just occurred to us. We understand that we were going to lose him and that we have to replace that quality for the team to move forward.
“It's something that's been happening for some time and hopefully we come out of the window with a stronger team.”
'Things will happen in this last week of the window. We certainly don't plan to sell Kyogo and then be weaker. Our plan is to be stronger starting in January.”