Celtic manager Martin O'Neill would love to keep Daizen Maeda at the club this summer and allow him to run down the final year of his contract, as Henrik Larsson did over two decades ago.
Maeda was central to Celtic's double success last season, scoring nine goals in their final seven matches of the campaign.
Set to depart for Bundesliga club Wolfsburg in August of last year, Maeda ended up sticking around for 2025/26, with the expectation that he would depart this summer.
While O'Neill won't stand in the way of any potential exit, he would like Maeda to stay.
"I think there's some resignation in that aspect. It isn't one of those where he's got a year left to run and we want to try and make something of it in the sense of getting money," O'Neill said.
"It's not that at all. Personally speaking, I would love it if he just let his contract run through. And played for the last year.
"Honestly, it would be super. I don't know whether that's in his mind or in his agent's mind.
"If I throw back, not every comparison has been made, but Henrik Larsson told me a year before that that was going to be his last year.
"Now, his contract was out at that stage and he was fantastic for us in the final season. But he made it clear that that's what he was going to do. He had his time.
"Now, the only difference between that is that he's got a year left to run. That's all. But it's not one of us trying to make as much out of it in terms of finance.
"It's me, personally. I'd love him to stay. I'm not sure that that's going to happen."
The situation of Maeda's countryman, Reo Hatate, holds equal intrigue this summer.
The midfielder returned late for pre-season after picking up a sickness bug and did not travel with the squad to Ireland or Portugal this week.
Hatate did not feature consistently under O'Neill in the second half of last season and we reported in May that he expressed a desire to leave Celtic.
O'Neill said: "I think that Reo has done exceptionally well at the football club since he arrived. People have said he might even have been the best player in Scotland two or three years ago.
"I think myself that he's probably looking to maybe see if there's new pastures for him.
"I'll see how it goes with him here when he's there. So, like everything else, during this particular time, it's a bit unsettling for players, a wee bit like Maeda. So, you just don't know.
"I'd love to keep him [Maeda] at the football club. He's done brilliantly, and he's got a year left to run. But I said to him, if he left the football club, I would be obviously disappointed, but he couldn't have done any more for us.
"He really couldn't have done any more.
"And Reo himself, let's see what options might be around. But if nothing develops, I'd be very happy to keep him."
There is expected to be renewed interest in Hatate's midfield colleague, Arne Engels, this summer.
Celtic rejected multiple bids from Nottingham Forest for the Belgian midfielder in the latter stages of the January transfer window.
And O'Neill is braced for yet more offers this time around.
"If, for instance, all those bids that Nottingham Forest made come in on the 11th hour – that was just a non-goer for us at that particular stage," he said.
"So if some things can happen a bit earlier, then maybe there's some resignation on my part.
"That's part and parcel. And while we consider ourselves a big club, in terms of finance now, people can earn much, much more money elsewhere."
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Last, but by no means least, O'Neill conceded that Benjamin Nygren, who registered 30 goal contributions last season after joining Celtic from Nordsjaelland for around £1.7 million, could exit.
"His stats are very, very high, absolutely," he admitted. "So there's every possibility that something could happen there."
Colombian forward Camilo Duran has already joined Celtic for £5.5 million this summer.
But if the club are to lose such a considerable number of key performers in the remainder of the window, O'Neill's recruitment team best get busy.
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