Celtic’s recruitment last summer was chaotic, to say the very least.

The return of Brendan Rodgers was met with a soft rebuild, helmed by Mark Lawwell and his recruitment team. Mainstays such as Carl Starfelt, Jota and Aaron Mooy moved on to pastures new, whether that be a change of club or - in the case of the latter – retirement altogether.

These players had to be replaced, as Celtic looked to fight on four fronts this season, both domestically and in European competition. Whilst some of those replacements have been successes such as Paulo Bernardo and Luis Palma (in the first half of the season, at least), there have been many more misses than hits, which may have prompted Lawwell’s upcoming summer exit, alongside his chief scout Joe Dudgeon.

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Admittedly, Celtic made two very strange signings this summer, both from effectively the other side of the world concerning location. The first was Marco Tilio, an Australian winger from Melbourne City, who is back at the same club after struggling to break into Rodgers’ first-team plans, on a loan until the end of the year. He only managed two total appearances before his swift return to his homeland.

Unlike Tilio, the second did not manage a single competitive in what was an unimpactful start to life in Scotland. Of course, that man is Kwon Hyeok-kyu, who signed from K League 2 side Busan IPark in his homeland of South Korea. Indeed, his only two runouts in any capacity were pre-season friendlies against Wolves and Athletic Club, in which he had varied levels of success.

Thankfully, this issue of game-time in Scotland has not been an issue for Kwon this time around, due to his move to St Mirren under Stephen Robinson. A move beneficial to all parties, the central midfielder has been an ever-present for the Paisley side since his January arrival. Eight appearances in total, he has played every game for his temporary side apart from matches against Celtic and last time out versus Kilmarnock. Five wins have happened in this time, with just two defeats and a draw occurring when the midfielder has been present on the field of play.

In light of this sudden injection of game-time for Kwon, we can analyse how he has fared in his opening foray into Scottish football. Using StatsBomb player radars, we can match up the midfielder against his contemporaries by the method of percentile ranking. The results – as you would probably expect – are mixed for the South Korean. When viewing his midfield metrics as a whole, it is clear that he has both strengths to further hone and weaknesses to work on, which explains why he is not making the grade at his parent club as of yet.

Let’s start with the positives, as his standout attribute is in pressure regains, which is when the ball returns to the possession of the player immediately following an executed pressing procedure. Kwon ranks highly in this, with a rating of 94 out of 100 in percentile ranking at a rate of 4.74 per 90 minutes. Staying on the topic of pressures, he manages 20.32 per game, amounting to a 74th percentile amongst his peers. Another positive data finding comes in the PAdj (possession-adjusted) tackles, as he completes 2.41, again a solid rating of 72 concerning percentile.

As mentioned previously, however, not all of his data findings are positive, with some real room from improvement evident in certain areas of the South Korea midfielder’s game. Perhaps the most alarming is that of successful dribbles, which is a lowly 0.34 per game. In turn, this places him 18th in percentile ranking, though his position as a deeper midfielder may be partly to blame for this score. Furthermore, his turnover numbers are concerning, too, as he manages to commit 2.20 unforced errors relating to possession of the ball. If he is to have any future at his parent club Celtic, then this is an area where he needs to brush up on. Though not as bad as the other placings, his 32nd percentile for fouls won is another area where improvements are required, with his total averaging 1.02 per game.

There are some average findings concerning his numbers, which leave him middle of the road concerning percentiles. His passing – though at a decent percentage at 82 – leaves him languishing in the 62nd percentile, in an area where he will want to be excelling in ideally. Similarly, his deep progressions sit at 4.40 per 90 minutes, with a middle-of-the-road percentile of 47 for his troubles in this area. Again, this can possibly be attributed to his position on the park, as he features as a deep-lying midfielder for Robinson’s side.

Despite these numbers being up and down thus far for the midfielder - displaying both upsides and downsides in his game in Scotland – his temporary club seems very keen to keep him on their books for the foreseeable future, at least beyond the end of this current season.

Directly from the horse’s mouth, Saints manager Robinson last month admitted that he would love to keep the Celtic loanee around beyond the summer. Speaking in February, he said: “He’s someone we’d really like to keep.

“We’re speaking to Celtic about it, perhaps keeping him for another season with ourselves. We’d be very keen to do that, but he isn’t our player and that won’t be our decision. We knew he’d have an influence; it was about getting him game-time. He came to the country and hasn’t played a lot. It’s getting him used to Scottish football, long throws and long balls at times that he maybe isn’t used to. The physicality of our game.

“He’s added that bit of quality and composure. It’s something we’d be very keen to get done. It’s possibly a long way off happening, but that would be in an ideal world for me.”

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A popular player in Paisley, it would certainly seem. In all honesty, you would expect neither associated side to stand in the way of this stay being extended, especially due to the handiness of Kwon playing just 22 minutes away from his parent club.

Will Kwon ultimately make the grade at Celtic? It is still far too early to say, with many deficiencies still needing to be flushed out of his game to get to that level. The difference now is that he is getting consistent game-time, which gives more of a guide concerning his development as a football player.

One to watch in the weeks and months ahead.