The new Brendan Rodgers era at Celtic could be about to get a huge vote of confidence with Reo Hatate close to agreeing a contract extension.
As we told you late on Tuesday, Hatate is closing in on a new deal at Celtic with current negotiations being described as “positive”.
The Japan international was rumoured to be on the way out of the club throughout the summer and got off to a slow start under Rodgers. Hatate was left out of the manager’s starting line-up for our first two competitive matches of the season and then missed over a month through injury.
However, he has now been back for three matches and netted a penalty against Livingston on Saturday.
The 25-year-old has played his best football so far under Ange Postecoglou. When the Aussie departed in June, some felt that the likes of Hatate, Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi would leave Celtic, even if not to join him at Tottenham Hotspur.
The latter two signed new contracts pretty quickly. However, Hatate’s may be the biggest statement given his obvious ambitions to move to a more glamorous league in the near future.
Tying him down for an extra year or two wouldn’t guarantee that his stay in Scotland would be extended. Our feeling is that he still seems likely to depart the club next summer. But it would allow us to demand a higher transfer fee and just put us in a better negotiating position overall.
It would also be a huge vote of confidence from the midfielder in the Rodgers era. It would be him saying that he wants to be a part of what we’re building while learning from one of the better coaches around.
Hatate is an unbelievable talent, but he still has plenty of parts of his game to work on. Rodgers could unlock an even greater level in him like he has done with so many others in the past.
It’s a tantalising prospect.
In other news, Rodgers alludes to important role for Anthony Ralston at Celtic
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
