Swedish centre-forward John Guidetti, 23, has a platform in the UEFA European Under-21 Championship to back up his self-aggrandisement.

Guidetti at times talks as if he is in touching distance of superstardom even though he has been released by Manchester City. 

That could be the reason why Guidetti treated his loan at Celtic with such disdain, dashing his chance to emulate compatriot Henrik Larsson‘s legacy at the Bhoys.

 

Not Good Enough For Celtic 

“It felt like my goals at Celtic were not counted in the same way as in other leagues,” Guidetti said, per Mattias Tengblad at Expressen (h/t STV). “There are too few ‘big games’ [in Scotland].”

Post-football, Guidetti should consider becoming a spin doctor.

UEFA‘s coefficient rankings rate 22 leagues ahead of the Scottish Premiership.

However, Guidetti was hit-and-miss meaning he is out of line to disrespect a league he could not dominate. 

Scottish Premiership 2014/15	Club/s	Goals/Games
Adam Rooney	Aberdeen	18/37
Leigh Griffiths	Celtic	14/24
Nadir Ciftci	Dundee United	14/36
Greg Stewart	Dundee FC	13/34
Tony Andreu	Hamilton Academical	12/23
John Sutton	Motherwell	12/38
Ali Crawford	Hamilton Academical	11/38
Billy Mckay	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	10/23
Liam Boyce	Ross County	10/30
Kris Commons	Celtic	9/29
Tope Obadeyi	Kilmarnock	9/29
Brian Graham	St Johnstone	9/24
Gary Mackay-Steven	Dundee United/Celtic	9/34
Stefan Johansen	Celtic	9/34
Kris Doolan	Partick Thistle	9/35
Michael O’Halloran	St Johnstone	9/38
John Guidetti	Celtic	8/24

There were 16 footballers in the Scottish Premiership who outscored Guidetti, four were his teammates. 

Every time Guidetti attempted to shoot, 78 per cent of the outcome was negative, per Wyscout.

Under Celtic manager Ronny Deila, Celtic won the league by 17 points and had a goal difference of plus-67. 

Guidetti should have been Larsson-esque in scoring.

Instead of displaying maturity by accepting culpability for underperforming, Guidetti questioned Deila‘s man-management. 

“[Deila] said I would sit on the bench because I was not going to stay at the club,” Guidetti said, per Alison McConnell at the Evening Times. “[Deila] said that we can’t play you if you keep scoring goals and we build up your value, and then you leave the club.”

Guidetti referenced his seven-game run where he scored six goals. What about the other 17 games he didn’t score in the Scottish Premiership?

Grappling to contain his ego, Guidetti‘s me-first attitude erupted when he argued with James Forrest over a penalty in Celtic’s 2-0 win over Dundee United in the Scottish League Cup final.

“We have to put the team in front of ourselves. It is something we have to work on all the time and learn from through experience,” Deila said, per David McCarthy at the Daily Record. “This is not [good] team spirit. It is individual thinking and I don’t want anything to do with that.”

Deila was right to bench Guidetti, who was mediocre in a league Celtic have a monopoly on.

Scoring 242 goals in all competitions for Celtic including a 53-goal season, Larsson maintained his professionalism.

A more accomplished footballer with substantially more leverage than Guidetti, Larsson didn’t act petulantly, according to former teammate John Hartson, per his book Celtic Dream Team, co-written by Iain King:

[Henrik] was never late, he never shirked training or pushed boundaries in the dressing room by answering back or ridiculing the coaching staff. He could have by then he was that powerful, but he never did. 

If it had been [then-Celtic manager] Martin O’Neill vs. Henrik Larsson with the crowd then there would only have been one winner.

… If Henrik had wanted to act the [expletive] he could have undermined anything the boss was trying to achieve, but he never showed any signs of trying anything like that.

Guidetti should have been humble like Larsson.

“I spoke to Henrik a couple of times. I know what the [Celtic] fans are expecting but Henrik was an amazing striker and they are very big shoes to fill,” Guidetti said, per Paul Handler at the Manchester Evening News. “It’s a lot to live up to and I’m going to do my best.”

Forget about the goals, how about adhering to Deila?

“To be professional is to be a 24-hour athlete,” Deila said, per Stephen Halliday at the Scotsman. “Do you think Andy Murray eats chips? For Murray to win Wimbledon, he did something different to what he did four or five years before. He looks much sharper, much fitter.”

Going by the eye-test, the diet plans and conditioning programs Deila enforced at Celtic had little to no gain on Guidetti.

Devoid of explosive athleticism and looking portly, Guidetti‘s body type leans more towards Wayne Rooney than Cristiano Ronaldo.

Except, Rooney has scored 185 Premier League goals and Ronaldo is the reigning FIFA Ballon d’Or winner.

Meanwhile, Guidetti is a free agent.

 

Super Guidetti 

The step-over to the left, darting inside, evading Gary Warren’s tackle, and the composed finish in Celtic’s 1-0 win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle was reminiscent of Guidetti‘s past.

Trapping the ball with his chest, swivelling and hitting a left-footed shot past Juan Pablo Carrizo to snatch a 3-3 draw against Inter Milan in stoppage time reinforced how talented Guidetti is. 

At his optimum best, Guidetti is a two-footed finisher, creates goals for his teammates, can take the ball past the last defender and score from free-kicks.

This is why his failure at Celtic is amplified.

Guidetti once was one of the most exciting centre-forward prospects in the world on loan at Feyenoord during the 2011/12 season.

The second he consumed that piece of chicken forever consigned Super Guidetti to archival footage, per Simon Mullock at the Daily Mirror:

It got worse when the illness led to a rare virus which badly affected my nervous system … [a doctor] said my career was hanging by a very thin thread. I burst into tears. I saw my whole future crashing down.

… I knew that I had lost all power in my right leg, but what I didn’t notice was that my leg had become so thin. The boys at Manchester City shouted: “[Expletive] hell, John, just look at your leg!”

… One minute I was in heaven, the next in hell. I could not believe it.

It’s OK to be arrogant, conceited and narcissistic if you are Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has won league titles in four different countries.

It seems Guidetti has not grasped that the leeway to Dare to Zlatan dissipates without consistent world-class performances.

Now an inferior footballer, Guidetti might still believe he is a 0.87–goals-per-game scorer as he once was at Feyenoord.

“Everything I touched, everything we did [at Feyenoord] just became gold,” Guidetti said, per Eredivisie Live. “This was the golden year.”

Perhaps, he hasn’t let go of the Feyenoord Guidetti, an extraordinary wonderkid, who was destined for greatness after scoring 20 goals in 23 Eredivisie games.

It was a traumatic experience which debilitated Guidetti‘s athleticism, stagnated his development and forced him to question his faith, per Eredivisie Live:

I had a difficult time with God for a while. I started doubting. I was asking him: “Why? Why me? I kept asking him why and I didn’t get any answers.”

I stopped going to church for a bit because I was disappointed. God had taken this away from me.

… Maybe [God] wanted to learn and say: “John, you don’t deserve to be a football player at the top-level if you can’t handle this.”

Everything happens for a reason. This is going to make me a better footballer at the end of the day. It’s been tough. But trust me, I’m going to come out of this stronger.

Failing to make a positive impression on loan at Stoke City and being the anti-Larsson at Celtic, Guidetti can only rely on someone else’s faith in him.

“Trust me,” will probably be two words Guidetti uses ad nauseam to suitors in the summer transfer window.

Deila has already moved on from Guidetti “and has planned to be without the Swede next season,” per Michael Grant at the Times. 

Starring at the UEFA European Under-21 Championship is mandatory if Guidetti wants to begin his redemption tour.

 

+allanjiang.

When not specified, statistics via WhoScored. 

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