Celtic great Pat Bonner believes the Hoops missed their opportunity to see whether Conor Hazard could cut it at Parkhead or not.
Hazard was given a couple of short spells in goal last season under Neil Lennon. The Northern Irishman made 7 appearances last term and bagged 4 clean sheets in the process. Yet despite that, Hazard looked suspect from cross-balls and was most notably at fault in key domestic games against Hearts and Hibernian respectively.
Lennon would shut Hazard out 12 months ago and instead went with both Scott Bain and Vasilis Barkas. Ange Postecoglou, meanwhile, brought experienced former England stopper Joe Hart into the mix, with Hazard now dropping down to 4th choice.
And Bonner believes that Celtic had the chance to stick by the player last season as the opportunity for an extended run was there.
As quoted by Football Scotland, Bonner said: “I don’t know about Conor Hazard. I thought there was a perfect opportunity to try him out when he was there and they didn’t give him that real opportunity to see what he was made of.
“He’s now 23 and hasn’t had any proper game time. That’s a slight problem. I’d like to see a young goalkeeper that in two or three years time, is going to become the number one and Joe can help that goalkeeper to come through the system.
“I don’t know much about Ross Doohan. I’ve watched him the odd time, but he’s out on loan which is good. He’ll get game time also and let’s see if he comes through.”
Conor Hazard was made to pay for the few errors he suffered
Nobody can deny Celtic are in a much stronger position this term with regards to the goalkeeping position. Hart’s arrival, regardless of how well any of the stoppers managed to perform last season, would always have seen him bag the number 1 spot.
However, at that moment in time back at the tail-end of 2020, Hazard was given his opportunity and ran with it pretty well. But the sad fact is that he was made to pay for a few high-profile errors. Given the experienced goalkeepers he was up against and the fact that a derby at Ibrox was just around the corner, it was always going to prove costly.
You could understand Lennon’s desire to give Barkas another chance at the start of 2021. The club invested a lot of money in the former AEK Athens man, and on paper he had the experience to deal with the derby better than his competition. Yet you can’t say Hazard was poor in the 7 games he did feature in.
Remember, Hazard was the penalty shootout hero against Hearts in that Scottish Cup final back in December 2020. He made some big stops against Lille in a Europa League clash too. Not to mention his clean sheets against Kilmarnock, Ross County, Hamilton Academical, and Livingston respectively.
Hazard made some mistakes, but he wasn’t allowed the chance to grow into the jersey. Given the mess that was last season, you could again understand the hesitancy in investing too much faith in youngsters. Especially given 10-in-row was on the line.
Yet unfortunately, it looks as though Hazard’s time at Parkhead is close to being up. At 23, he needs regular minutes, and his contract is up in the summer of 2023. Whether he leaves this month remains to be seen, but his chance to impress unfortunately came and went last season.
In other news, Report: Highly-rated Celtic-linked U21 int’l has decided his next club
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