It Daizen get any more urgent than tying down Maeda

IT could be that Daizen Maeda is just a hard man to pin down.

- MICHAEL GANNON

Ask Premiership defenders how tough it is to shackle him.

Perhaps it's the same for Parkhead chiefs when it comes to this new contract offer that is due to be drafted.

Maybe Maeda has been in too much of a hurry in preseason, building up the kind of superhuman levels of fitness that get him through a campaign.

But this is an important part of the Any Other Business Celtic do need to get done - and sharpish.

It might be like refuelling a jet plane while in the air but, either way, they need to dock with the attacker and get pen on paper sooner rather than later.

Maeda is now into the final couple of years of his contract and the Hoops could do with bolstering their insurance policy with the Japan star.

Yes, it has been a bit quiet in terms of speculation surrounding his future. Maybe too quiet.

Given the form he showed last season, a stampede was expected outside Parkhead.

Brendan Rodgers admitted himself a few weeks before the end of term he was fully braced for serious interest in Scotland's Player of the Year.

The bids haven't landed yet but that doesn't mean they won't come.