Celtic are reportedly eyeing up a bid to sign current loanee Adam Idah on a permanent deal when the upcoming summer transfer window opens for business.
The Hoops loanee is said to be available for a fee of at least £5m and the Parkhead side are now looking to snap him up on a long-term contract ahead of next season.
Idah has racked up seven goals and two assists in 15 appearances in the Scottish Premiership since his loan move, despite only starting four of those games.
Brendan Rodgers will then be hoping that the 23-year-old star has a future as the next prolific striker to enjoy a successful tenure in Glasgow with the Scottish giants.
The likes of Kyogo Furuhashi, Gary Hooper, Moussa Dembele, Leigh Griffiths, and Odsonne Edouard are just a few of the modern centre-forwards who have enjoyed goal-laden spells at Paradise.
Go back just a little bit further, though, and Henrik Larsson was one of the best strikers in Celtic history with his incredible time with the Bhoys.
One player, however, who was tipped to be the next Larsson at Parkhead and failed to hit the mark was young centre-forward Mohamed Bangura.
How much Celtic paid to sign Mohamed Bangura
The Hoops splashed out a fee of £2.2m to sign the striker from Swedish side AIK Stockholm on a four-year contract in the summer of 2011.
That deal made him the most expensive signing in Scottish football that year, and it was revealed that he was recommended to the club by Larsson – a former Sweden international – himself.
Bangura, who scored three goals in three games for Kallon U19 in his youth days, made his first-team breakthrough with AIK in Sweden during the 2010 campaign.
Appearances
13
4
19
Minutes played
1,062
450
1,575
Goals
6
1
7
Assists
1
0
3
As you can see in the table above, the young attacker had caught the eye in limited minutes on the pitch throughout 2010 and 2011 with his club.
He scored 14 goals and provided four assists in 36 matches in all competitions for the club, including ten direct goal involvements in 19 matches in the 2011 season.
21 at the time, Bangura arrived at Celtic as a promising young centre-forward who had showcased his quality in front of goal at first-team level in Sweden.
In fact, his agent, at the time, hailed him as a "skillful" player and tipped him to be the "next Henry Larsson at Celtic", which speaks to how highly rated the young gem was in 2011 when he made the move to Scotland.
Being compared to the Swedish legend, who also recommended Bangura to the Hoops, was high praise, indeed, as he was incredibly prolific during his spell with the club.
Henrik Larsson's goal record with Celtic
The iconic marksman racked up 242 goals in 315 appearances for the club in all competitions across seven years after his move from Feyenoord in the summer of 1996.
He won the Golden Boot in the Scottish Premiership in five of his seasons in Glasgow and won eight domestic trophies, including four Premiership titles.
Larsson produced a staggering 143 goals and 51 assists in 183 matches in the Scottish top-flight throughout his time at Parkhead, which means that the Swedish hero averaged more than one direct goal contribution per match.
His best season for goal contributions in a single Premiership season came in the 2002/03 campaign as the star striker fired in 28 goals and registered 19 assists in 35 league outings.
He also smashed in 11 goals in ten UEFA Cup matches for the Hoops that term, which shows that the ex-Feyenoord ace had the quality to perform domestically and in Europe.
These statistics show that Larsson was a clinical and lethal centre-forward who consistently found the back of the net over an extended period of time.
There was, therefore, huge pressure on Bangura's shoulders when he was tipped to be the next version of the Swedish superstar at Parkhead, upon his arrival from AIK in 2011, around seven years after Larsson left the club to join Spanish giants Barcelona.
Celtic were rinsed by Mohamed Bangura
Unfortunately, the young number nine, who could also play out wide, failed to hit the mark in Scotland as Celtic were rinsed dry throughout his time in Glasgow.
The 21-year-old endured a difficult debut campaign at Parkhead as he struggled to break into the starting XI on a regular basis, with the likes of Gary Hooper and Anthony Stokes ahead of him in the pecking order under Neil Lennon.
Hooper plundered a staggering 29 goals in 49 matches for the Scottish giants, whilst Stoke produced 21 goals in 46 games in all competitions.
GK
Lukasz Zaluska
RB
Adam Matthews
CB
Victor Wanyama
CB
Daniel Majstorovic
LB
Charlie Mulgrew
CM
Sung-Yueng Ki
CM
Beram Kayal
RM
James Forrest
LM
Joe Ledley
ST
Gary Hooper
ST
Mohamed Bangura
Bangura only made 15 appearances in all competitions and was an unused substitute in six more. In those 15 matches, the young attacker failed to register a single goal for the team, but did record one assist.
After that season of struggles in front of goal, the forward only went on to play one more game in all competitions for Celtic before his free transfer exit in 2014.
The striker scored four goals and registered two assists in ten games back on loan with AIK and produced seven goals and four assists in 27 league matches for Elfsborg on loan from Celtic.
In January 2014, after his loan spells back in Sweden with AIK and Elfsborg, the Scottish giants mutually terminated the £2.2m flop's contract with the club to allow him to leave for nothing.
This meant that Bangura ended his Celtic career with zero goals scored in 16 matches in less than three years in Scotland, before leaving on a free transfer.
The Hoops were, therefore, rinsed of £2.2m by the big flop. He was not a success on the pitch, with his lack of appearances and complete lack of goals, or off the pitch, with his £0 exit.