Can Celtic reboot Tomas Cvancara's Career after failed stints in Germany & Turkey?

Once prolific at Sparta Prague but blunted in Germany and Turkey, Cvancara lands in Glasgow with a career to rebuild and a support desperate for a reliable No 9.

Celtic have announced the signing of Tomas Cvancara on loan from Borussia Monchengladbach, with an option to buy in the summer, and their second of the January transfer window after the arrival of Julian Araujo.

However, Celtic’s decision to sign the Czech striker feels like another classic modern Parkhead gamble - a forward with clear physical tools, a spike of past productivity and top‑flight experience, but just enough red flags in his recent record to make this as much a test of Celtic’s environment as of the player himself. In a season where Celtic need to get back to their best after a first half of the season that would have ended any other club’s title challenge, the question is not simply whether Cvancara is good enough for Celtic, but whether Celtic are the right club to unlock a version of Cvancara that Germany and Turkey never quite saw.

On paper the deal itself is straightforward, almost textbook. Celtic have taken the 25‑year‑old Czech international on loan until the end of the season, securing an option to make the move permanent for a reported fee in the region of £7m. The structure is a familiar one that Celtic have used previously - limited short‑term risk, a defined price if things go well and a clean break if they do not.

Cvancara is not a raw teenager or a purely developmental project. He is not an ageing stop‑gap either. He is a player in what should be his prime years, who has already felt both the pull of a big move and the chill of it not quite working out.​ Similar to what Chris Sutton was when he joined as a 27-year-old after hitting the heights with Blackburn and then failing at Chelsea - not that I am comparing the two!

The context to the signing is important. Celtic are desperately needing a first‑team ready striker not another project player dreamed up by a dodgy Football Manager system that no other club on the planet uses. It has been felt in every game this season where Celtic have dominated possession and games overall but that has not translated into goals resulting in dropped points or a total collapse at the back and going on to lose games. Supporters have watched chances flash across goal, promising moves collapse on the edge of the area and long spells of pressure go unrewarded. In that environment, every new centre‑forward arrives not just as another option, but as a bearer of hope and expectation. Cvancara comes into a squad where Johnny Kenny has proven that he is not at Celtic’s level despite numerous chances to prove his worth, while Shin Yamada is simply dug meat.

Cvancara’s own story to this point is one of steps upwards followed by stumbles. He started his career at FK Jablonec in the Czech Republic, a solid platform rather than a glamour move, before making the switch that would define his reputation at home, a transfer to Sparta Prague. At Sparta, he scored 19 goals in 43 appearances and developed the kind of penalty‑box presence and timing that attracted scouts from top five leagues in Europe. That form earned him his Bundesliga move to Borussia Monchengladbach, a significant step up in terms of pace, tactical demands and scrutiny. For a young forward, it was both a reward and a challenge.

Germany, though, was not been kind in purely statistical terms. Cvancara managed only eight goals in 54 appearances in two seasons – never truly nailing down a role as the starting striker in a side in one of Europe’s toughest leagues. The raw numbers are not catastrophic, but they are not the return of a striker who has arrived and imposed himself either. When the loan move to Antalyaspor materialised, it was framed as a chance to find form and confidence in a different setting. Instead, that spell in Turkey produced just one league goal in 11 appearances, with external factors – notably financial issues at Antalyaspor and not being paid – adding to the sense of another stalled chapter rather than a fresh start for the 25 year old.

And yet, if football were simply about looking at the last two lines on a goals tally, many of Celtic’s best modern signings would never have happened.

The gamble for Celtic is that Cvancara’s Sparta version was not an anomaly, but a glimpse of what he can be if he is given the right platform, the right surroundings, and the right manager to bring out his best. At 6ft 2in, he brings a frame that naturally appeals in Scotland - especially against defences of similar height and build, but comments from Martin O’Neill cut through lazy assumptions from the Scottish media that was just another big man to lump the ball at, that he is not a classic John Hartson type, nor a pure back‑to‑goal battering ram in the mould of Chris Sutton. Instead, he has been described as quick, agile and eager to prove himself – a forward who can run channels, press from the front and combine, rather than simply pin defenders and wait for crosses.​

That distinction from Hartson and Sutton clearly matters when you drop him into this current Celtic team. Despite all of Celtic’s failures this season, we are a club that still wants to dominate the ball, pull defences around and create overloads in wide areas. A striker who is static, or who thrives only on direct service, isn’t suited to that approach. A striker who can shift between leading the line, peeling into half‑spaces and linking play has a far better chance of thriving. Cvancara, if the assessment of his game as we are told is accurate, fits the latter description. In that sense he is being asked to sit somewhere between the roles that previous Celtic forwards have played - able to finish like a penalty‑box striker, but also quick enough to contribute outside the box.

There remains, however, the unavoidable question of his recent productivity. Since leaving Sparta, Cvancara’s goals have dried to a trickle and, even allowing for the different challenges of the Bundesliga and the Turkish Super Lig, that lack of end product is what fuels scepticism - including from yours truly. The bet from Martin O’Neill is that the player is still getting into the right areas often enough and that, in a league where Celtic will create more clear opportunities than Antalyaspor or a mid‑table Gladbach side, his finishing will regress towards the more positive Sparta Prague time rather than remain in the recent trough that he has experienced since leaving the Czech side.

And despite all of the discussions around his recent and past forms - he will still be regarded as the best striker at the club given the options that Celtic currently have available. Irish youngster Johnny Kenny remains a player whose most convincing work has been done back in the League of Ireland, where a loan at Shamrock Rovers allowed him to bank minutes and goals but has ultimately proven that he is notgood enough to lead the line for Celtic week in, week out. Shin Yamada, meanwhile, arrived from Kawasaki Frontale with a record – over 86 appearances and roughly 32 goals, including a standout season with 21 goals in all competitions – but he is not good enough.

Compared to both Kenny and Yamada, the bar for Cvancara is both high and oddly forgiving. He does not have to be a transformational figure to be useful; he simply has to be a reliably better option, right now, than Kenny and Yamada. On experience alone, he is. He has played in the Bundesliga, trained in an environment where every mistake is punished more ruthlessly than in Scotland and has already felt the pressure of a big fee and big expectations. That toughening process can break some players, but it can also harden others. Celtic are gambling that he falls into the second category.

There is also a psychological angle to consider. Strikers, more than any other position, tend to live and die on confidence. A striker who has known what it is to be the man at Sparta, then found himself on the margins in Germany and trudging through a messy loan in Turkey, is likely to arrive in Glasgow with a mix of hunger and insecurity. The atmosphere at Celtic Park can either overwhelm that combination or transform it. The fans are demanding but also uniquely energising when a player shows visible commitment and personality. A forward who runs, presses, fights for second balls and throws himself at crosses will be forgiven a miss or two in the early weeks. But if the drought drags on, the same noise can be suffocating.

From Celtic’s perspective, the option‑to‑buy structure is a safety net. If Cvancara spends the next four to six months looking like the Gladbach version rather than the Sparta Prague one, the club simply thanks him for his efforts and moves on, having risked only wages and a loan fee. If, however, he hits a run of form, racks up double‑figure goals and looks at home, then the £7m clause begins to look like a bargain for a 25‑year‑old with experience in Germany and Europe. In recent years Celtic have seen the upside of such clauses with players whose value shot beyond their initial outlay, and the model continues to look central to their recruitment & financial strategy.

The bigger question for supporters, though, goes beyond the spreadsheet logic of the Celtic board. This is about whether Celtic have done enough to address the glaring problem with the team. Cvancara is a player with a clear ceiling, but still provides justifiable doubts in his ability. He’s clearly not the finished article, but a player whose upside, if achieved, could look like smart recruitment; but whose downside is limited financially but potentially costly in a season where fine margins will decide titles and Champions League qualification.

Is he any worse than Johnny Kenny and Shin Yamada? That is the blunt way many will frame it, and in fairness to the question, it cuts to the heart of the decision. Kenny has already proven that he is not good enough. Yamada is behind Kenny in selection and that says all you need to know about the Japanese striker. Cvancara arrives with question marks, but he has proven himself in the Czech League and has experience in a top league - Bundesliga. That does not guarantee success; it does, however, mean he is not a downgrade on what is already at Celtic. He is, at worst, a lateral move in terms of talent with a more immediate readiness for the demands of a title race. At best, he is a sizeable upgrade who renders the comparison moot by making the position his own.

Ultimately, this signing asks as many questions as it answers. Can Cvancara rediscover the ruthlessness that made him such a threat for Sparta Prague, or have the last two years permanently dented his career? Will the environment at Celtic – the style of play, the volume of chances, the roar of a packed Celtic Park – give him the platform to rebuild his reputation and find his form again? Can he stay fit, sharp and mentally resilient in Glasgow goldfish bowl in a way he could not quite manage in Germany and Turkey?

Right now, no one can answer the questions that we all have hanging over the head of Cvancara. That uncertainty is certainly etched into the nature of the deal that Celtic have negotiated. What is clear is that Celtic have rolled the dice on a striker who fits their need for experience and physical presence, who comes with a built‑in escape clause if it fails and a potentially lucrative upside if it works. The rest – the goals, the misses, the verdict on whether he is the man to lead the line or just another name on a long list of nearly men – will be written in the weeks and months ahead.

For a club, a support and a player all desperately seeking goals in the final third, Tomas Cvancara is both a risk and an opportunity, the story of which side of that line he lands on will be decided come the end of the season - and whether he can help guide Celtic to their fifth league title in a row.