Shin Yamada may need to come in from the cold as Brendan Rodgers suffers inevitable outcome of transfer window uncertaintyShin Yamada

There was a time when football boffins adopted the 10,000 hours theory when it came to creating footballers.

You know the one. It takes that amount of time or so for anyone to become an expert in their chosen field.

But there’s another way to develop players. One of the great unwritten rules.

The less a player actually plays, the better they become.

It could also be known as the Bobo Baldification Process, named after the former Celtic defender who caused plenty of heart palpitations for Hoops fans when he was in the team but became Bobo Baresi when he was frozen out of it.

It’s a common theme that pops up from time to time. Nico Raskin has been Bobofied at times when he’s got on the goat of whatever poor sod is in charge of Rangers at the time.

Then he gets back in the side and results don’t improve and the chat of him being the new Kevin de Bruyne dies down for a bit.

Bobo Balde (R) brings down Barcelona’s Thiago Motta(Image: Reuters)

In fairness, Raskin is a tidy player – especially for Belgian – who might be occasionally dragged into the Ibrox misery blender.

But back across at Celtic, there’s been several examples of absence making the heart grow fonder, with the likes of Derek Riordan a decent example, and, more recently Paolo Bernardo, who looks like he should be a superstar at the club until he’s actually been on the pitch.

Now it’s the mysterious Shin Yamada ’s turn. The man, the myth, the legend, who knows.

Celtic fans might be about to find out though, mainly thanks to the Parkhead club treating the transfer window like an old married couple trying to pick a movie to watch on Netflix then abandoning the idea altogether after four hours flicking through the carousels.

Yamada has now shot up the list of strikers due to elimination. Adam Idah’s inexplicable exit, quickly followed by Kelechi Iheanacho’s entirely expected injury, and Daizen Maeda understandable reluctance to keep playing, even if he had a leg hanging off, has left Brendan Rodgers pretty bereft up front this weekend.

Johnny Kenny is likely to get the starting role at Tynecastle and in fairness to the former Shamrock Rovers hero, he will run himself into the ground and get himself into some tasty goal scoring positions.

Whether he will stick them away is still up for debate, but the chances are he’ll need some help at some stage.

And that’s where Yamada may have to come in. It’s hard not to feel for the frontman this season.

He was dragged across the world to sign for Celtic and his manager acted like he’d been asked to look after the sister-in-law’s new yappy puppy while she went out on the ran dan.

The whole narrative whether he was a ‘club signing’ or a ‘manager signing’ means some Hoops fans reckon their side have the original R9 on the books but the gaffer is not playing him as a two fingers up job towards the board.

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The truth might be more straightforward. Rodgers might be stubborn but he’s not going to hack off his hooter to spite his face.

He sees Yamada every day in training and he’s yet to be convinced.

Yet there have been plenty of players over the years Rodgers has sent to sporting Siberia, only to be forced to send out the search party to bring them back on board.

Who knows, Yamada might be a surprise package.

What is clear is Hearts might never have a better crack at Celtic than this afternoon.

Derek McInnes has – probably wisely – tried to cool the title talk, but he wouldn’t need much cold water if his side lost to a makeshift Hoops line up in Gorgie today.

Celtic still have plenty of quality players – just ask the Austrian league leaders who were scudded the other night in the Europa League.

But failing to get the better of Celtic at their worst won’t auger well for taking them on when the Hoops get back to their best.

Mind you, most managers would still give a limb to have the kind of problems Rodgers has, so perhaps sympathy should be kept to a minimum.

The title race won’t be decided in the capital this lunchtime but it could take an interesting lurch in one or two different directions.

The clash could also throw up some new heroes or perhaps reveal that some myths are better off left unexplained.