Celtic have made some brilliant headway over the last two weeks by tieing up Callum McGregor, Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi into new contracts.
The club are clearly looking to make a statement of intent after the disappointing loss of Ange Postecoglou to Spurs and Jota to Al-Ittihad.
And whilst many fans are looking to see if Celtic will be looking at extending Cameron Carter-Vickers and Reo Hatate, there are more pressing matters for them to deal with as the season goes on.
Don’t get me wrong, Carter-Vickers and Hatate are extremely important players but both are still contracted to 2026. Although I understand the need to get them tied down for the message it will send to potential suitors, there are contracts that are expiring in 2024 that the club will need to make a decision on sooner, rather than later.
Joe Hart, Scott Bain, David Turnbull, Ismaila Soro and Albian Ajeti all will see their current deals end at the end of the coming season. [Transfermarkt]
The club must decide soon whether or not they intend to either extend them or sell the players to recoup the money spent when they first bought by the club.
I think we can all safely assume that Albian Ajeti and Ismaila Soro have no future at the club. With the club shelling out around £8m for the pair, the chances of recuperating anything close to that are next to zero.
So what do we do? Hope someone comes in with a cheeky bid or do we look to cut ties just as we did with Vasilis Barkas? Cutting ties seems the obvious choice but the players will have a huge say in whether they agree to that or not.
Scott Bain is another that sees his contract expire at the end of next season. Although reports have suggested [Daily Mail] that he penned a new three-year deal last season, the club have yet to announce it officially.
It is said that he is a hugely popular figure in the dressing room and is a good backup option to have, but after making just 76 appearances since joining in 2018, is that really enough to justify keeping him on at the club?
The two that the club have a big decision to make on is Joe Hart and David Turnbull. As I spoke about yesterday, Turnbull is one that I would like to see stay at the club. At his age (24), I still believe he has something to offer.
Whether or not he has the ability to oust the likes of Matt O’Riley or Reo Hatate is one thing, but surely he is good enough to have around as a backup option?
As for Hart. I would deal him in right now. The big Englishman has been a huge success at Celtic and after what we have seen from him at the Portugal training camp, it seems he is a dab hand at helping to coach and encourage the young goalkeepers at the club.
There is little doubt the club will need to make some difficult decisions, but the sake of clarity lets hope it is done sooner rather than later.
In other news, Tomoki Iwata reacts as Yokohama F Marinos make Celtic transfer announcement
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