Celtic goalkeeper Conor Hazard made a classy phone call to Dundee manager James McPake in what was a fine gesture from the Northern Irishman.
Hazard spent last season on loan at the Championship club and played on a regular basis as he boosted his profile further. The Courier reported earlier this month that McPake wanted to bring him back this season, only for Celtic to pull the plug over a contract dispute.
It’s perhaps the best thing that could’ve happened to the Celtic goalkeeper too. Scott Bain and Vasilis Barkas have both struggled to make any sort of impact this season, and that’s forced Neil Lennon into a desperate move in throwing Hazard in.
The Northern Ireland international made his first start for the Hoops against Lille last Thursday before impressing against Kilmarnock on Sunday, and Hazard made a classy gesture after the game against the Ligue 1 league-leaders.
Speaking in comments published by the Courier, McPake said: “We saw his quality here. Conor is also a really humble, nice guy. He really enjoyed his two loan spells, enjoyed working with Bobby (Geddes) and he helped us. He kept five clean sheets in his last five games, only conceding once in his second spell here before lockdown.
“He brought a lot to our squad so we tried and we thought we were getting him back. Unfortunately Celtic had other ideas at the very end and you can now see why.
“He’s a great guy and he picked the phone up after making his first start for Celtic. He’d played in Europe but he picked up the phone and thanked myself, Bobby and all the staff here at Dundee for everything we did for him. That’s a class act from a classy person.”
A loan move that easily could’ve happened
In any other season and under any other circumstances, this is a deal that easily could’ve been finalised. Hazard could’ve been at Dundee and we would’ve been persisting with either Barkas or Bain.
Look, there are no guarantees that Hazard is going to be some sort of saviour for the Hoops this season. It could be that the defence continues to let us down and exposes him too often for him to make any real difference. Either that or he just doesn’t turn out to be as good as hoped he would be.
But you can also forgive the Celtic supporters for being excited with what they’ve seen of Hazard so far. Not least because he’s actually managed to make a couple of saves – something it feels like we haven’t seen from Bain or Barkas in open play.
It would’ve been interesting to see what Lennon would’ve done had he sent Hazard on loan to Dundee. With Ross County taking Ross Doohan on loan, Celtic were out of options. The January transfer window likely would’ve been extremely important.
However, Celtic’s upcoming fixtures gives Hazard a massive opportunity to now build some momentum. With games against Hearts, Ross County, Hamilton, and Dundee United coming up, there are big opportunities there for clean sheets to be had.
That could leave Hazard in a great spot ahead of our trip to Ibrox on January 2nd. It’ll be interesting to see if he can keep the jersey for that long.
In other news, we discuss why Neil Lennon’s comments could backfire on him even if Celtic win on Sunday.
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