It's time for a brutally honest talk about Celtic's Schrödinger striker after a Regi Blinker in Belgrade

Daizen Maeda is a hard man to read at the best of times and even his teammates admit he pretty much keeps himself to himself

It was probably inevitable at some point given the deadline day shenanigans, but it’s already time for The Daizen Maeda Discussion.

There’s no real escaping it on the back of Belgrade.

Maeda turned in a proper Regi Blinker in the Balkans, which could be shrugged off as a bad night as the office if it was a one off.

But it can’t because it wasn’t.

Scotland’s reigning player of the year is looking a shadow of his former self right now.

Maeda has become Schrödinger’s attacker at the moment. He’s here but he’s not here.

And, to be brutally honest, it’s been that way for a while.

Maeda is a hard man to read at the best of times and even his teammates admit he pretty much keeps himself to himself.

But there’s no denying Daizen looks down in the dumps.

It’s not just on the back of having to unpack his suitcase on that disaster of a deadline day.

Being all set for a big move and a hefty pay hike and then being back to the old workplace will have stung.

Yet there were warning signs of Maeda going off the boil before then. Towards the end of last season he went back to Japan with his family for the birth of his third child.

The wee barra didn’t play ball and he returned to Scotland for the run in while his wife and the rest of the clan remained in their homeland as junior arrived with dad away working.

Listen, there’s no point playing amateur psychologist and trying to get into the guy’s head, but he did seem distracted.

You go back to the missed one-on-ons against Rangers at Ibrox and then in the Scottish Cup Final defeat to Aberdeen.

There was another huge one in the Kairat shocker in Kazakhstan and a repeat in the first derby of the season.

Maeda pounced with a brilliant header at Rugby Park the other week but it was part of an all-round fairly ordinary display.

The performance didn’t even hit the dizzy heights of mediocre.

Even his usually reliable Duracell Bunny routine seemed gone, and he gave the linesman tennis elbow with the amount of times the flag went up for offside.

The only surprise about the hook was that it took until half-time.

Maeda deserves some slack. He might just be knackered carrying the Celtic attack for six months plus, on top of the personal upheaval and move disappointment.

But he can’t afford to stay in this funk. You’d expect he’ll be Joe the Toff in January but at this rate he might end up marooned in Glasgow for longer.

Prospective buyers won’t exactly be making a stampede on recent showings.

He’ll need to rediscover his mojo. Kelechi Iheanacho is building fitness but it won’t be long before he’s the first choice frontman.

Sebastian Tounekti has grabbed the left winger role and Michel-Ange Balikwisha is jostling in behind him. Jota still has to come back too.

Maeda is in danger of being a man without a role, leaving him even more in limbo.

It’s blindingly obvious he should have been sold in the summer. At 28-years-old and heading into the final two years of his contract on the back of a proper purple patch, his stock was never higher.

When it comes to the Celtic board’s annual We’ll Learn From This transfer mea culpa, this one should be top of the list.

In fairness, Celts did have replacement left wingers lined up, but they so badly botched the striker search, Maeda ended up locked in the basement.

It’s done and dusted now and everyone will need to get on with it.

Maeda will go down as a modern day cult hero at Parkhead and he’ll get nothing but love when the time does come to part.

But in the meantime he’ll need to rediscover his spark and get back in the game for Celtic at home and in the Europa League or he might be stuck even longer in this increasingly miserable arrangement.

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