At the current rate of frenzied speculation from the Far East, Shunsuke Nakamura will return home in January and generate a one-man economy.

At the current rate of frenzied speculation from the Far East, Shunsuke Nakamura will return home in January and generate a one-man economy. The player, signed from Reggina for £1.2m plus image rights, is seemingly immune to amortisation; that great buzz word of the football boardroom that becomes part of the punctuation at annual shareholders' meetings.

Nakamura's homecoming to Yokohama Marinos, a lower-ranking side in the Japanese J.League, has already been estimated to yield a Beckhamesque £90m in sponsorship and marketing potential. Nissan, exporters of reliable vehicles for the middle-aged and sponsors of the Marinos, are furiously number-crunching their way into a piece of the action.

Nakamura, a thoughtful and respectful employee, has issued only the most diplomatic of dispatches regarding his view on a long goodbye. Family issues, prolonged exposure to dreich weather, and an understandable hankering for home after seven years in exile - save for the exhausting long-haul flights to represent his country at international level - have all been softly acknowledged.

There is the small matter of his contract, which does not expire until the summer, and the interim challenges ahead. Celtic, barring a remarkable rally in Group E, will tumble out of the Champions League. The willingness of Gordon Strachan and Peter Lawwell to bid farewell to their profitable icon, in financial and football terms, in January may hinge on Celtic's ability to secure third spot and a parachute place in the UEFA Cup.

After Friday's glowing tribute, Strachan was not for expanding on the latest flurry of excitement from Japan suggesting an imminent return of their favourite son. Instead, he reaffirmed Nakamura's importance to Celtic in the short-term, despite a weight of evidence that suggests the midfielder's mind, if not yet body, is already in Japan.

"I would not have him anywhere but here," insisted Strachan, now understandably wearying of the weekly circus surrounding the unknown specifics of Nakamura's inevitable departure. "People who make comment on his state of mind don't know the player or the club. They don't know what is going on at the club and so should keep their mouths shut."

It is a sign of Nakamura's hero status in Japan that news of the 30-year-old's return to Yokohama has eclipsed the global financial meltdown and the beckoning history of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. In stark contrast, the Co-operative Insurance Cup has, in its many guises, suffered from local apathy. Its significance is not lost on a series of Old Firm managers, present incumbents included, who have celebrated the cup as their first piece of silverware.

Strachan may have joined the pantheon of great Celtic managers by recording three successive title wins, while taking the club to the last 16 of the Champions League twice in a row, but it has not diluted the disappointment of relinquishing the first available domestic trophy in the past two seasons.

"It has definitely hurt not winning it," he said. "We would like to do something about that. The league is the priority and if you pick up anything after that, then great. I can't prioritise.

"It is the easiest of the tournaments to win in that you have to win four games. Look at what Rangers had to do to get to the UEFA Cup final last season. They had to play about 19 games, which is half a season to anybody else.

"It Co-operative Insurance Cup is less demanding - I will not demean the tournament - but it helps that it is seeded to a point. Anyone who wins it outside the Old Firm should cherish it."

Kilmarnock will stake their claim this evening and do so in rude health after another inspired summer of bargain signings by Jim Jefferies. Manuel Pascali and Conor Sammon have made valuable contributions but Scottish football's longest-serving club manager has yet to record a win against Celtic in any competition.

"I was in England for 21 years and never beat Newcastle United," said Strachan of his own football quirk. "I went to Liverpool and won loads of games but sometimes these things just happen. If he Jefferies can keep the nucleus of his team then they can be a good team but if they lose three or four players, they have a problem."

Strachan has his problems, too. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Georgios Samaras are out through injury, and may be joined by Stephen McManus. The manager will resist change for change's sake but Cillian Sheridan is expected to retain his place in attack. Strachan also name-checked Paul Caddis but used the full-back's situation to plead, yet again, for the abolition of the SPL's anachronistic under-21 rule, which forces clubs to include three under-21 players in a matchday squad.

"Paul Caddis is one I wouldn't want to lose," he said when asked if the time had come for the defender to be sent on loan, "not as things are with the under-21 rule. He might have been one we would let go on loan to Gary McAllister at Leeds United but the under-21 rule means we need to have guys on the bench when they could benefit from playing on loan.

"We mention it every year to the SPL to scrap the under-21 rule. If they are good enough, they will play anyway. Look at David Beckham after his spell at Preston: sometimes it can do wonders for a player."

Strachan, whose mind will soon return to the weightier issue of Celtic's Champions League conundrum, will not allow his squad to regard the competition at hand to be a mere inconvenience before the glamour of the big stage against Manchester United.

"If you want an easy life don't come here," he said. "You come here to play domestic football, cup football and European football.

That is just part of the deal."