WILFRIED NANCY believes retaining the services of Daizen Maeda is key to Celtic’s success and insisted the Japan striker is happy at Parkhead.

The French boss knows that the 28-year-old wanted to leave the Scottish champions in the summer and was linked with an unnamed German club and Premier League outfit Brentford but it came to nothing.

Maeda, who joined Celtic from Yokohama F. Marinos in 2022, initially on loan, is under contract at Parkhead until June 2027.

At a pre-match media conference for Saturday’s game at Livingston, Nancy spoke about Maeda’s current situation.

“He’s really happy here,” said the former Columbus Crew boss, who alleviated the intense pressure he was under after starting his tenure with four defeats with a 3-1 win over Aberdeen on Sunday.

“I know that he had the opportunity to leave before but for the moment he’s with us and he’s happy to be here.

“Yes, for sure, we’d like to keep him and he knows that. I hope that he’s going to stay.”

Nancy believes Maeda can impact the game from both wide left and centre forward positions.

He said: “When he starts in the middle, he makes the run on the side to attack.

“When he starts on the side, he makes the run towards the net. So this is all about this kind of situation.

“After that, he can be good also as a number nine but he needs players around him.

“He’s a player who can keep the ball but he likes to make the run, he likes to combine.

“It’s all about players around him. But also, tactically, he’s really interesting because when I have him on the side, I know that something will happen.

“Or we can use the fact that he’s on the wing to be able to attack through the middle. So it depends.”