There is a double-edged sword at play here if Odsonne Edouard were to rejoin Celtic. If the Frenchman were to seal a return to Glasgow's east end, it would mean only one thing - Kyogo Furuhashi has left the building. That ain't happening, right?

Last week social media was swirling with Manchester City allegedly weighing up a move for the Japanese talisman who has 73 career goals for Celtic and 89 goal contributions in total since he arrived from Vissel Kobe in the summer of 2021.

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers nailed it all to the wall when he said, "It’s obviously rumour and gossip. I haven’t spoken to him (Kyogo) directly on that. If I were to speak to every player about gossip and speculation, I would be working 24 hours a day. It’s of no interest to me."

That's as concrete and as it gets from the Irishman. Kyogo is going nowhere. It's of no interest to the vast majority of the Celtic supporters either.

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This week as we enter the last few days of the transfer window Edouard's Celtic return was mooted after Crystal Palace signed Eddie Nketiah from Arsenal for a £25 million fixed fee plus £5 million in add-ons pushing the 26-year-old nearer the Selhurst Park exit door.

Edouard dazzled as a Celtic player between 2017 and 2021. Signed from the PSG academy initially on loan and then for a record fee of £9 million during his time at Celtic he provided 87 goals and 38 assists in 179 appearances. Those were incredible statistics by anyone's standards. It was Rodgers who knew exactly how to get the best out of him.

The Frenchman's close control was sublime. He was ice-cool under pressure. He was technically gifted beyond belief. He is one of the three best strikers the club has had at their disposal since Henrik Larsson - Moussa Dembele and Kyogo being the other two - who could plunder all sorts of goals at an alarming rate. He was a goalscorer supreme, in Scotland anyway.

Edouard's career was on an upward trajectory when he left the Scottish Premiership. When the English Premier League came calling in the shape of Crystal Palace in 2021 it was viewed as a wise career move. Palace shelled out the guts of £14 million rising to £18.5 million with add-ons and many felt that Edouard's natural progression down south would eventually lead him to greatness.

However, the Eagles didn't soar under Edouard and his miserly return of 21 goals in three seasons in the English top flight tells its own sorry story. Edouard has talent. An abundance of it. Yet in the words of his former manager and now current Celtic boss: "Sometimes talent is not enough."

There is also a lazy narrative that has sprung up around Edouard which is that he downed tools during the ill-fated attempt at 10-in-a-row in season. It suited the Celtic supporters. They needed scapegoats and the record signing among others was the perfect candidate for failing to provide the club unique slice of footballing history. That school of thought was wrong then and it is wrong now.

Yours truly may be in the minority but I simply find it hard to believe that a professional footballer would ever truly down tools. Edouard still managed 22 goals that season in a struggling Celtic team and finished as the club's top scorer. There is no base or credence to the downing tools barbs aplenty that have been fired his way. He was a fabulous player for Celtic. End of.

Granted, there's also a school of thought that says Edouard's style is arguably more suited to a Rodgers Celtic team than Kyogo's.

Yet Edouard's appearance at the OVO Hydro-hosted Player of the Year award ceremony for his former club at the end of the season also set tongues wagging about a potential reunion in Glasgow between Rodgers and the player. He was given a fantastic reception from the fans who once hero-worshipped him.

Regrets? Edouard has a few, I'll bet. It is another cautionary tale of a payer leaving Celtic and failing to find their footballing nirvana. Many players find out the hard way that life can be very different to G40 and playing in the green and white hoops. Just ask Jota, how he feels right now at this career juncture.

'French Eddy' struck fear into the hearts and minds of every opposition player, manager or supporter during his whole Celtic career. He is still fondly remembered for his superb curler into the top corner and winning goal against Rangers at Ibrox in 2018 when Celtic turned their city rivals over 3-2 despite having only 10 men. That goal and moment can also be traced back to the start of the Glasgow derby ticket row fiasco. The reverberations of which are still being felt to this day.

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(Image: Craig Foy - SNS Group)

At 26 years old, the upside for Celtic would be picking up a player who has been there, seen it and done it with the club and is allegedly heading into the prime of his footballing career... or at least he should be.

However, you get the feeling that Edouard should be ready to take the next step in his career. The one that takes him to the very top levels of the game. The fact that his game has stagnated so badly tells you all you need to know and why he is being linked with a move to his former club in the first place.

There is an adage that: 'you should never go back', it is usually true, especially in football. However, Rodgers's managerial return to Celtic has blown that theory out of the water to a degree. Rodgers has shown that time is a great healer. Rodgers's redemption arc is all but complete in the eyes of the Celtic fans.

Edouard could arguably do the same by re-joining Celtic and attempting to regain his cult and hero-like status with the supporters. The irony of all ironies here is that what Edouard probably needs is to be reunited with a manager like Rodgers who could help lift his ailing career and restore his confidence levels. Rodgers might be tempted. However, not at the expense of Kyogo.

That in essence is the double-edged sword at play here. The obvious appeal for Celtic is that they could re-sign a former hero who is about to hit his prime years. He'd be playing under a familiar manager and a system that would not be alien to his nature. However, the Celtic fans would not entertain parting company with Japanese talisman Kyogo to make that happen. Not with less than three days left of the transfer window.

Despite failing to get off the mark in four games this season Kyogo has contributed to those victories and performed very well. He remains a vital cog in Rodgers' green-and-white goalscoring machine both at home and abroad.  Celtic and Rodgers simply have to move on and say: 'Merci mais non merci' on this particular deal.

The Celtic fans lovingly belted out 'I wanna be Edouard' to the tune of 'The Stone Roses' famous hit 'I wanna be Adored' when the Frenchman was in his pomp and ceremony at Parkhead.

Edouard will simply have to be 'adored' elsewhere.