THERE is an empty peg in Celtic’s dressing room where the No7 shirt once hanged.

That nobody in the current squad has been rewarded with this special number is not an oversight. It’s that none are considered worthy of carrying the weight of this digit on their back.

Indeed, it’s never really been filled, not properly, since Henrik Larsson. The great Swede left these shores in 2004.

Of those handed the Larsson/Provan/Dalglish/Jinky number, there have been few genuine successes.

After Larsson came Juninho and then Maciej Żurawski, Scott McDonald, Robbie Keane, Freddie Ljungberg, Nicolas ‘Miku’ Fedor, Nadir Ciftci and lastly Patrick Roberts.

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There are some real crackers in there.

Larsson was Celtic’s last player with a claim to be world class while at the club. He remains, in the eyes of this bystander, the best header of a ball Scottish football has seen, in an attacking sense, since Derek Johnstone.

This was Neil Lennon’s era. When Larsson wasn’t leaping through the air, it was Chris Sutton or John Hartson. If that Celtic team could get the ball into an opponent’s box then more often than not it was a goal.

The Celtic manager is way too canny, alas, to dish out a ‘Vakoun Bayo is the new Larsson line’ but he can see something of his old team-mate in the 22-year-old Ivorian. Namely that the striker is strong in the air.

Lennon has enjoyed watching this side of Bayo’s game – he’s scored a couple with his head already – which is something Celtic have lacked a little in recent seasons.

“Bayo’s a real threat and if we can get enough quality in to him you feel he’ll score goals,” said Lennon. “He’ll miss the Cluj game through suspension but we felt he was harshly treated (for his red card in Rennes) so there’s no blame attached to him.

“He’s a good kid and comes in with a smile on his face. He’s in great condition and really has done well.

“We like Vakoun. He had to bide his time and he was a wee bit down after the recurrence of his hamstring injury. He got a bad one with Ivory Coast around March, had a good pre-reason and then it reoccurred but it only kept him out for a short period of time.

“But what we saw pre-season encouraged us a lot and he’s come into the team and with the form Odsonne is in it’s going to be difficult to replace him on a regular basis but when he’s coming in he’s playing and training well.

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“He’s taking his opportunities very well to the point where he’s a very valued member of the squad. He’s got that aerial threat and that hanging time that Henrik used to have.

“Henrik was great regardless of whether the ball came in from the right or left. He could use his neck muscles and his timing for someone who wasn’t what you would call big was immaculate.

“The amount of goals he scored from corners and think of the two he scored in Seville - the first one was unbelievable because he had to generate his own power from the cross - he was one of the greats in that department.

“Bayo has got that natural talent for timing in the air which you don’t see very often nowadays because heading the ball is a lost art in the game.

“He brings an extra dimension to the way we play and it’s a nice asset to have. He hangs, gets the neck muscles going and heads it down which is always more difficult for a goalkeeper to get to.”

Lennon was keen to stress who important it is for any team to have players with the ability to jump high and get the ball on target.

“As I said, I think it is a real dying art, if you want to call it that. If you look at a lot of international teams, they still play with a big striker. France won the World Cup with Oliver Giroud, Croatia got to the final with Mario Mandzoukic, look at Alvaro Morata and Fernando Torres before him with Spain.

“I played with some great strikers, Emile Heskey, Sutton, Hartson, players of that ilk. I like players who can head the ball and that seems to be a talent which Bayo has.

“He has good hang time, he gets across people and is strong. Unselfish as well for the fifth goal. He could have taken the shot but he slipped Tom in so that was good awareness. I was very pleased with his performance, he has a lot of work to do still but he is relishing the challenge. And we have Odsonne scoring a header at the weekend.

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Celtic have scored 51 times this season with goals coming from all over the pitch. Cluj aside, not a lot has gone wrong so far.

Lennon’s best player has been Odssone Edouard, a 21-year-old kid in football terms who is beginning to look like the real deal.

With his team creating chance after chance, it’s no wonder the Celtic manager carries the air of a very happy man.

He said: “I’m delighted with the amount of goals we’ve been scoring. I felt we could score more goals and you could call it a bit of a purple spell and there’s been good consistency in terms of the volume of chances and the amount we’re taking.

“We’re still very early in the season but long may it continue. I’m delighted with what I’m getting from the players and the style of football.

“With Odsonne, I think it’s important not to get too far ahead. People will maybe ask him questions or there will be speculation about him.

“But as young player you just need to concentrate on the present and he’s doing that and is in great form. He’s a joy to work with. We’re really liking what we are seeing at the minute.

“He wants to improve his all round game. You can see that is we go along that his link up play is really good.

“His finishing is absolutely excellent whether that be one on one situations or the likes of his header last week which I loved.”