Hatem Abd Elhamed already has a nickname at Celtic

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Hatem Abd Elhamed’s new nickname has already been set by the Celtic players.

The Israeli right-back/centre-back hasn’t played a single game of football yet for the Hoops. His signing, unfortunately, came after the deadline to sign players up to face Nomme Kalju.

Elhamed was introduced to supporters at half-time during the 5-0 romp over the Estonians last week. There remains plenty of intrigue surrounding his signing. Nobody yet knows what he can offer the Hoops, with his first appearance hopefully coming on Saturday against St Johnstone at Parkhead.

But that hasn’t stopped the players from coming up with a nickname for him already. Speaking in the Scottish Sun, Lennon revealed exactly what the new name is.

“The boys are calling Hatem ‘Big Tam’ already. He’s 20 minutes in the door and he has a new Scottish nickname. We are pleased with what we are seeing with him. He is a little bit down because he has not trained much.”

Elhamed should be ready to go as soon as possible

Moving away from his new nickname, it shouldn’t be the case that Elhamed has any fitness concerns.

As soon as he signed for the club and was presented to the media, he mentioned how he has had a full pre-season with Hapoel Be’er Sheva. Elhamed confirmed he had “very good” sessions with the Israeli outfit over the last month or so.

Therefore, Elhamed should be good to go on Saturday against Saints. It seems like the perfect chance to see him too given how poor St Johnstone have been in pre-season. But there should be no question about whether Elhamed is fit to play.

What’s an even bigger question than that is whether he’ll be good enough to replace long-time veteran Mikael Lustig. There remain concerns over the fact that he used to feature regularly for Be’er Sheva at centre-back. He only played on several occasions as a right-back last season, but apparently the Israeli is still comfortable in the position.

We’ll get to find out a lot about Elhamed’s attributes when he makes his Celtic debut. And, given his work already this season for Hapoel, there’s no reason whatsoever why that shouldn’t be on Saturday.

With the number of games we have coming up in the early part of the season, it’s essential we have him integrated as soon as possible. Saturday certainly seems like the most logical time to do just that.