"We are not going to give it away, it is a cannon", said Celta manager when Monchi's Sevilla showed a timid interest in taking Joseph Aidoo at a good price last summer.
The Ghanaian center-back had continued in his first season at Celta. He joined Celta in July 2019 after the Spanish club paid eight million euros to Belgian side Genk.
Aidoo had been indisputable for Fran Escriba, with whom he only lost the first league game against Real Madrid, and had the weight of him also for Oscar Garcia after the relief on the bench. In total, he played 32 games in the last league, 27 of them as a starter - he gave Santi Mina an assist in the duel against Osasuna in Balaidos - and a Copa del Rey game. With the Sabadell coach, he kept the stripes at the start of this season. Of the nine days in which he led the team, Aidoo only stayed without playing against Atletico de Madrid and Levante, for health reasons, after testing positive for covid.
The arrival of Eduardo Coudet relegated the Ghanaian. With Oscar, he added 540 minutes in the first nine days, with the Argentine he has less than half —217 — in sixteen. He was a starter in his debut, in Nervion against Sevilla, but had to leave the game due to injury before the break. It would be the only ownership of him in a "not forced" league with Chacho. The other, against Cadiz in Balaidos, was prompted by the dismissal of Murillo due to sanction. A similar scenario - this time due to Araujo's injury - to which Aidoo is set to play next Sunday at El Alcoraz.
The Ghanaian international played his last game with the national team last November against Sudan - will have in Huesca, if it is confirmed as everything to anticipate the absence of the Mexican, a new option to make Coudet change his mind, a prey that seems nothing simple seeing the confidence that the technician has in his eleven.
Joseph Aidoo was particularly hurt by his performance in the Celta cup debacle in Ibiza. The image of the three goals conceded in the first half - and even his mistake prior to the Fontan penalty that cost the fourth - weighed like a slab in his options to regain ownership. Coudet has used it up to now basically to lose time - he entered four times, against Granada, Alaves, Huesca, and Elche, with the time fulfilled - or to reinforce the rear in the final measures as happened in San Mames and Mestalla.
On two other occasions, against Betis in Heliopolis and last Sunday against Valladolid, Aidoo entered the pitch due to the injury of a teammate. Against Betis, Jeison Murilllo was the victim and against the Pucelanos Néstor Araujo, the footballer who has ended up displacing Aidoo from the starting eleven.
More than a year has passed since that public reflection that Fran Escriba made about the central defender and it seems that, for the Ghanaian, time stopped then: "We are all clear that Aidoo is a very good central defender. Because of his age —25 years now — he has a tremendous margin of progression, also because of his power. He is still adjusting, we talk a lot with him and it is also true that he still does not know the forwards well. That later, because of the way he plays, he sometimes makes a mistake because he is also part of how good Aidoo is. It is difficult to tell a player now be aggressive and now not,"
The Valencian coach reflected strengths and weaknesses in a minute. Aidoo has physical conditions that he can take advantage of, he has pending adaptation to what Spanish football requires, which punishes tactical anarchy to the minimum of confusion, and correcting those big mistakes that he makes. He has three years left on his contract. In Huesca, he will have another pass to prove that the cannon is not fired at the foot.