Yosuke Ideguchi feared for his career while at Celtic and admits he could tell he wasn't in Ange Postecoglou's plans early in to his Parkhead stint.
The 26-year-old outcast arrived with fanfare alongside fellow Japanese stars Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate, both of whom have become integral parts of Postecoglou's system in Glasgow. But for Ideguchi an injury-hampered season restricted the midfielder to just six appearances as he sealed a loan move back to his homeland in February with Avispa Fukuoka.
Now the former Gamba Osaka man admits he truly feared for the rest of his career if he didn't get out of Celtic, and has hammered his involvement in game time at Parkhead. Ideguchi also insists he could tell that his playing time wasn't going to improve and ordered his agent to find him a new club.
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He told Sportiva: "To tell you the truth, I was scared. At this rate, my soccer career will end. At that time, I was still positive about the situation I was in.
“I was out for a little longer due to my first injury, but I was exposed to the manager’s view of football, and I felt like I was in Yokohama F. Marinos. I was really attracted to fast-paced soccer, and I got a lot of inspiration from the boss' guidance, so I faced soccer with a very positive attitude.
"I couldn't get involved in many matches, but I didn't waver in my determination to show myself well and compete here.
"To be honest, when I saw how Celtic played in the Scottish League, I thought it might be difficult for a player with a style of play like mine to survive, but on the contrary, I think there are areas where I can grow by trying to live there.
"Ever since I decided to move abroad for the second time based on my first overseas transfer, I thought, 'It's not going to be that easy.' Considering the position, I also felt that I needed to learn how to adapt myself.
"In that sense, I also felt like I was being tested, including my mentality to crawl out of a situation where I couldn't get involved in a match, so I just accepted the current situation and tried to do what I could."
He added: "Due to the large number of matches over there, there are almost no practice matches organized for players who have not played in matches like in Japanese J clubs.
"In that case, it is undeniable that players who are not involved in the game have no place to cultivate a sense of the game, and feel that they are practicing for the sake of practice. To be honest, I didn't think that playing soccer without knowing where I was going or what I was appealing to was doing me a favor.
"For that reason, from a relatively early stage after the start of the new season, I told the club that I would like to leave the team if it was out of the manager's plan, and that I wanted to join a team that had even the slightest chance of getting involved in the game.
"I also had an agent move. Of course, there is no guarantee that I will be able to play in other matches, but I was determined to play with a team that would allow me to stand on the starting line.”
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