Has Celtic’s Idah won over his doubters?

The Old Firm Derby on Sunday was, in some ways, a two-number tale.

Cyriel Dessers, the much-denigrated Rangers hitman, is in the blue corner, stomping on chances with harrowing regularity but wallowing in abundance.

Adam Idah, who arrived with a rumored £9.5 million budget and has so far failed to persuade some Celtic supporters, is in the green.

Idah was rewarded for his performance in Norwich City’s second half of the previous season while on loan there on loan, scoring nine goals, the most notable of which came in defeating Celtic’s city rivals to win the Scottish Cup at the death.

The 24-year-old’s performances have received a lot of negative feedback since permanently moving north this summer, especially since Kyogo Furuhashi’s striking fulcrum left in the middle of the season.

Idah fits a very different mold from Daizen Maeda, a fellow Japanese rapier, who has netted a staggering 33 times this term.

Should Celtic alter their possession-based strategy to adopt a more direct approach, he offers size, muscle, and points of interest.

And his output is not at all disappointing.

The Republic of Ireland international started only five of the 14 games that ended in November and the middle of January without scoring.

This term, he has scored 18 goals, three of which were in the Champions League.

A minute of wailing, end-to-end drama felt akin to the microcosmed Old Firm Striker saga.

Idah was sent through on goal with half-time approaching. He shot clumsily at goalkeeper Liam Kelly after grabbing a few earlier chances. The Ibrox roared.

Dessers, Vaclav Cerny’s cunning dummy, rolled calmly into the Celtic net after passing Liam Scales, who was Rangers went up the other end.

However, Idah remained unaffected. He was successful in making an effective play with Maeda down the left, linking it with accuracy, and receiving the winning goal.

Pat Bonner, a former Celtic goalkeeper, believes his former team needs to find another striker for the upcoming season and that his countryman would be better suited in the front two.

On BBC Radio Scotland, he claimed, “They have spent about £9 million on Adam Idah.”

They could reach that height once more to get that out-of-touch striker who can score goals.

They must employ someone there, they say. They can’t just put Maeda and Adam in there.

Adam has scored today, but I’m not sure if he needs to work with him.

Idah’s qualities have been mentioned frequently by Brendan Rodgers, and the Celtic manager once more resolutely praised them at full-time.

We are aware of Adam’s qualities, he said, and he doesn’t get criticism from us.

He only has a season to go, and he’s only going to get better. He plays in the big situations. He scores significant goals and victories. He will always improve.

He doesn’t set his price tag, but people are judging him based on it.

He has consistently demonstrated that he can score goals at every level, according to the company.

Brendan Rodgers’ manager was pleased with the leveller from Idah, which kept Rangers’ 17-point lead over their second-placed city rivals and prevented a third straight loss.

Rodgers continued, “I still believed we were in a good position in the game at half-time.”

We had complete control over the second half of the game. You occasionally have 10-15 minutes where you feel really pressured or pushed against the wall when visiting Ibrox, but I never felt that way.