Reo Hatate’s Celtic career may be about to end in the background.
Over four years since he was brought to Glasgow by Ange Postecoglou as part of a triple J-League coup with Daizen Maeda and Yosuke Ideguchi.
His seismic immediate impact led many to believe that he may not be at Celtic for long, but this hasn’t turned out to be the case.
And despite the fact that he has stayed put despite being linked away through multiple transfer windows, the Parkhead support are still missing the Hatate they saw in his first 18 months.
Reo Hatate’s Celtic career: unfulfilled potential or underrated excellence?
Reo Hatate has struggled to maintain the standards he set at Celtic
Not many Celtic midfielders score a screamer at Tynecastle and a first-half double against Rangers in their first month at the club, but Hatate did.
In his first full campaign, he racked up nine goals and eleven assists as Celtic won a treble. For much of the campaign, he was simply unplayable.
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He stayed put despite interest the following summer, but was benched for David Turnbull at the beginning of the season by Brendan Rodgers.
Rodgers said at the time: “It’s not in my contract to play any player. He’s got three years left on his contract, so there’s no rush on that.
“It’s a new cycle, a new manager, and Reo has to prove himself. I’m not really worried about what’s said or not. I’ll play the team I see with the best energy, mentality and efficiency with how we want to work.
“There’s no doubt Reo is a talented player, but there are other talented players here. He knows areas he needs to work on to play for me, and the structure of how I work.”
Throughout the Irishman’s time in charge, Hatate was hot and cold. Despite struggles with injuries, highs included his scoring performances in Celtic’s 3-1 win over RB Leipzig and a hat-trick of assists against St Johnstone inside 45 minutes.
Across Martin O’Neill’s two interim spells, he has started just over half of Celtic’s games. Again, there have been highs such as his performance off the bench at Ibrox in March, but these have increasingly been few and far between.
He is now firmly a bench player as the season’s run-in approaches, a sad end to a Celtic career which promised a fair bit more.
In both of Celtic’s post-split games, he hasn’t even been used from the bench.
Would you like to see Reo Hatate feature against Rangers?
Hatate has been an unused sub for three matches in a row!
Darren O’Dea on Reo Hatate at Celtic
Ex-Celtic insider Darren O’Dea suspects that there’s more to Hatate’s lack of game time so far in the run-in.
He said on the Go Radio Football Show: “Well, that’s another story. That probably really is the underlying problem at Celtic is why your best midfield player isn’t on the pitch.
“And I can assure you it’s not because the manager ain’t picking him, because he’s flying and training, or he just thinks there’s a better player. There’s a problem.
“I’m more meaning he mustn’t be training, right? I don’t know. I don’t know. We don’t know.”
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