Vakoun Issouf Bayo was among the scorers for Celtic on Sunday.
Jim Duffy has told BBC Sportsound that Vakoun Issouf Bayo has made a statement to Celtic boss Neil Lennon.
Bayo came off the bench to score the Hoops’ third goal in a comfortable 3-0 Scottish Cup win away to Clyde on Sunday afternoon.
Patryk Klimala, a £3 million January signing, was given the nod to start ahead of the Ivorian hitman as the Celtic manager rested star strikers Leigh Griffiths and Odsonne Edouard.
But the Polish marksman struggled to make a positive impression during his 75-minute stint, and missed a fine chance during the first half.
Bayo, a £2 million signing under Brendan Rodgers 13 months ago [The Scottish Sun], hasn’t had a lot of chances to impress, having managed under 400 minutes of football across all competitions this season.
And Duffy reckons that the 23-year-old marksman sent a message to his manager about playing time by scoring yesterday.
Duffy told BBC Sportsound: “He’ll be delighted and is sending a message out to Neil Lennon that ‘you may have signed a £3m striker in Patryk Klimala but I’m still here'”.
Bayo’s movement for the goal was particularly interesting.
The big man anticipated a cut-back from Moritz Bauer and then swept home. Griffiths and Edouard aren’t fox-in-the-box types, but Bayo has the intelligence and movement to be that type of striker.
He won’t play for Celtic ahead of the two main lads all that often, but he does offer something different and it’ll be interesting to see if Lennon uses him more and more on the back of that goal.
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