The five luckless Celtic outfielders with the least minutes played so far this season

67 Hail Hail take a look at the five Celtic outfield players who Brendan Rodgers has handed the lowest number of minutes to this season so far.

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Paulo Bernardo

Minutes played: 118
Appearances: 4

The Portuguese midfielder is such a talented option for Rodgers, but he finds himself way behind in the pecking order.

Callum McGregor, Reo Hatate and Benjamin Nygren are the preferred central midfield trio at the moment, while Luke McCowan and Arne Engels are just behind them.

Bernardo gets substitute minutes here and there, but that won’t be good enough for a man who still has plenty of years in the game ahead of him.

Johnny Kenny

Minutes played: 112
Appearances: 4

Johnny Kenny was targeted by Bolton Wanderers in the summer and there was talk of him leaving late in the window on loan.

However, Celtic decided to keep Kenny as a squad player for the season – but that will surely be detrimental to his development.

It would be a surprise if Kenny has a guaranteed long-term future at Celtic, even though he penned a new contract recently.

Kenny is arguably just behind Kelechi Iheanacho, while the potential sale of Daizen Maeda in January could open up more opportunities for the Irishman.

Hayato Inamura

Minutes played: 90
Appearances: 1

Hayato Inamura was a low risk summer signing from Albirex Niigata and in fairness to Rodgers, he did say it was a development recruit.

However, Inamura was impressive in a few pre-season games and played well against Livingston at left-back in August.

He hasn’t been seen since then, with the loan arrival of Marcelo Saracchi effectively ending Inamura’s chances of a run in the team this season.

It’s likely the Japanese defender – who isn’t in the Europa League squad – will be loaned out in January.

Jahmai Simpson-Pusey

Minutes played: 0
Appearances: 0

And now onto the two outfield players with zero minutes in the bag so far, the first being Manchester City loanee Jahmai Simpson-Pusey.

City must be extremely disappointed with Celtic because they would have sent Simpson-Pusey up on loan with the expectation he would play – otherwise what’s the point?

Simpson-Pusey made the bench for the two Kairat Almaty legs and that’s as close as he has been to being on the pitch for the Bhoys.

Pep Guardiola rates the youngster highly, so when on earth will we see him play?

Callum Osmand

Minutes played: 0
Appearances: 0

The other forgotten Celtic man is striker Callum Osmand, who was picked up from Fulham for a development fee in June.

Osmand played some pre-season games but did not look entirely convincing, so the future already doesn’t look so bright for him.

Another who was left out of the Europa League selection, Osmand could be one who is loaned out in January.

At the moment, he will continue to represent Celtic B in the Lowland League – not exactly what he came to Glasgow for.

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