Celtic clearly have several stars who want away, and Hatem Elhamed is reportedly one of them.
Back in early-December, the Scottish Sun reported that the Israeli wanted to go home. They claimed that Elhamed had grown unsettled in Scotland due to his family living back in Israel.
The Sun stated that Celtic would be open to selling Elhamed this month, so long as they found a replacement. The club was also said to be open to a potential loan move too.
Fast forward seven weeks and fellow right-back Jeremie Frimpong has departed. The Dutchman signed for Bayer Leverkusen in an £11.5m deal earlier this week [Scottish Sun]. It’s superb business for the club who must now try to find a replacement in the last several days of the transfer window.
But whilst we’re at it, it’s important for Celtic to now hold talks with Elhamed over his own future. Given Wednesday’s announcement regarding Frimpong’s departure, things have changed.
A path out of Glasgow for Hatem looked feasible before Frimpong left. Elhamed has only started one league game since September. He’s barely used and an alternative shouldn’t have been too hard to find.
Celtic departure for Elhamed now unthinkable
However, now he’s back to being our only natural right-back. Sure, Kris Ajer has covered the position well, but he’ll need to drop back into the centre-back spots regularly. Fans won’t accept a continued partnership of Shane Duffy and Nir Bitton at the heart of the defence.
Besides, if Celtic were only going to allow Elhamed to leave if they found a replacement, they’re hardly likely to be keen on the idea now that our only other right-back has left.
Yes, I’m aware we have Anthony Ralston available. He always puts in a decent shift, but we need better. Elhamed still represents better, even if he’s struggled for consistency due to not playing many games.
Celtic will look to find a replacement for Frimpong imminently. But at the same time, that will put any search for an Elhamed replacement on the back-burner. Simply because we don’t need to sell the Israeli anytime soon.
There’s also no guarantee that any Frimpong replacement will do the business. We need Elhamed around for the next five or six months at least for solid back-up. You can argue about the morals of that, but Celtic need to look after their squad options.
Come the end of the season should Elhamed want to leave, that’s a more reasonable timeframe for us to source an alternative. However, Frimpong’s sudden departure may just have put any January move for Hatem on the shelf.
In other news, Celtic look set to neglect a key position this January for the fourth consecutive transfer window.
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