Celtic manager Neil Lennon has hailed the qualities of Hatem Abd Elhamed, revealing that he thought the player being available was too good to be true in the summer, The Scottish Sun report.
Elhamed arrived from Hapoel Be’er Sheva for a reported fee of just £1.5m and has been a stand-out in the early stages of the season.
Whether in domestic competition or against serious outfits like Lazio, the Israeli international has been as solid as it gets.
He’s so good in fact that Lennon felt he required extra scrutiny in the summer, feeling that his profile must have had its negatives.
As quoted by The Scottish Sun, he said: “We looked and looked at him thinking, ‘What’s wrong with him, is there a flaw?’
“Every time we were looking at other players we went back to him again and thought, ‘We’ve got to trust our eyes here, trust our instincts’.
“You know I’ve a good relationship with the agent, and he was waxing lyrical about him, as agents do. But he’s been true to his word so far, he’s been really excellent.”
Signing of the season contender?
It’s fair to say that expectations were low amongst a section of the Celtic support when Elhamed arrived at the club. His playing record and lack of specialist position was questioned before seeing him in action.
After 11 appearances though he’s shown excellent consistency and work ethic. That, coupled with ability on and off the ball, makes him a real contender to be our best signing of the summer.
The Hoops didn’t really put a foot wrong in the transfer window. Almost all of the first-team players brought to the club have made a positive impact.
Elhamed clearly has a fan in Lennon and as the season develops, expect the player to be one of the first names on the team sheet for the big matches when fully fit.
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