It’s less than a month since Neil Lennon spoke about the bargain the club had found themselves in Hatem Abd Elhamed – and said he was at a loss as to where the Israeli’s “flaw” could be found.
The club splashed out £1.6million (Scottish Sun) on the 28-year-old in the summer to the displeasure of many fans. They wanted a more household name. Someone who could fill the void left behind by long-term servant Mikael Lustig.
To their surprise, Elhamed turned out to be a gem. He played a number of high-profile matches in his early days – like flag day against St. Johnstone, both legs of the Cluj tie and the first derby of the season at Ibrox – as he became a key player for Lennon.
He also featured in home win over Lazio – after which the Northern Irishman gushed about the bargain he’d help secure.
“For the money we bought him for he’s proving to be real value for money,” he said, as reported by the Daily Record. “But we looked and looked and looked at him.
“Then we looked at him again and were always wondering: ‘What’s wrong with him? Where is the flaw?’
“Every time, though, we went back to him, looked at the footage again and looked at other players.
“And finally we thought: We’ve got to trust our eyes, trust our instincts.”
Elhamed seems to miss a lot of matches
There’s no doubting that Elhamed is a very capable player. He’s as reliable as they come – a good defender and competent enough going forward. He looked, and still looks, like a massive upgrade on Lustig.
Yet perhaps there is something that doesn’t quite meet the eye with him – his injury troubles. The news broke on Thursday that Elhamed was set to miss six weeks out – a period which includes the Betfred Cup final against Rangers.
The defender hasn’t started a league match since the win over Hamilton in mid September. Seven Premiership fixtures have come around and Elhamed hasn’t been chosen to start in any of them.
Perhaps a lot of that is down to the emergence of Jeremie Frimpong, and the fact that Elhamed has been favoured for the big European matches. But you can’t help look at his stats and wonder why he has only played 201 matches of football at the age of 28. (transfermarkt.co.uk)
Maybe it’s just a fact that he’ll pick up injuries and be unable to play more than one game per week. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – especially when we’ve got Frimpong and Bauer in reserve. But it is a sign that perhaps Lennon’s flawless man does have a flaw after all.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
