Undoubtedly, everyone connected with Celtic will be glad to see the near conclusion of the 2020/21 campaign upon us.
In a season of little positives, one unlikely success story that swept Celtic Park was the introduction of goalkeeper Conor Hazard to the fold. Little-known before December, the 23-year-old pitched up against Lille in the Europa League for his competitive debut. Fast forward ten days later and the giant stopper played a major part in the delayed Scottish Cup final triumph over Hearts.
Seemingly on the way to a cup defeat, Hazard miraculously saved two consecutive penalties as the Celts won the Quadruple Treble [BBC Sport]. Though since January, the Downpatrick native hasn’t featured between the sticks for Celtic [Transfermarkt]. With only four games of little note left to complete, surely now Hazard is worthy of an opportunity to stake a claim for the number one jersey.
Clearly rated highly at Celtic, he signed a new two-year deal with the club in March [Sky Sports]. Despite his potential, he is now 23 years old which signifies he needs to regularly play to develop sooner rather than later.
Is Conor Hazard good enough to be Celtic’s number one goalkeeper?
Truthfully, no-one really knows the answer to that question as of yet. The signs look promising from initial observation, as he has kept four clean sheets from his inaugural six appearances [Transfermarkt]. He also made his debut for the Northern Ireland national team in 2018 as a substitute against Costa Rica [BBC Sport].
Whilst in more recent times, he made his first start for them in his only other outing at home to the USA this year [Sky Sports]. Echoing the sentiment of needing more opportunities, the Lennoxtown graduate said to the Daily Record:
“My main focus is I have to get game time. That has to be one of the non-negotiables now if I’m going to take the next step in my career.
“With Celtic the main aim is to be number one and I’ll go back and do everything I can to nail that down. If that doesn’t work then I’ll look at the options.
“It’s in my personality to keep going until I get what I want. I have self-belief and I think I’m proving that with every opportunity I get. I’ve played seven games and have four clean sheets and unbeaten in seven.”
A need for a more youthful approach
Fundamentally, Celtic need to find a way of granting their younger players more senior openings moving forward. If the club don’t adhere to this, they run the risk of losing talented future stars. Whether Hazard is better than positional counterparts Scott Bain and Vasilis Barkas is one thing.
However, in an earlier stage of his career he may hold more long-term value as a player than both.
Celtic should make an effort to pursue his development, as there could be a reliable goalkeeping option in him for years to come.
In other news, there is one continuous Celtic error that John Kennedy cannot persist with tonight.
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