Could Celtic sell Reo Hatate to Panathinaikos, further decimating the midfield before any replacements come in?

With Celtic’s Champions League qualifier just 2 days away, these are the current midfielders we have available to us:

Callum McGregor, Luke McCowan, Reo Hatate, Benjamin Nygren, and Mika Baur.

As we are all well aware, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is not available due to an outstanding suspension from 2023, which now has to be served.

Apparently, Martin O’Neill was not aware of this.

And why would he be?

It isn’t as if in the midst of retaking the reins at Celtic Park – after Wilfried Nancy had run the club’s title bid off the rails – that Martin O’Neill suddenly thought to himself, ‘I’d better check and see if the Ox has any outstanding European suspensions from almost 3 years ago?’

No, he had more pressing issues at the time, like re-igniting our title challenge.

Martin’s immediate concern was that he was unavailable to play in our Europa League tie against Stuttgart.

That was all he was thinking about at that time.

So anybody blaming him for this should give it a rest.

Irrespective of that, Celtic are headed into Wednesday’s Champions League qualifier with just 5 midfielders available to us.

One of those midfielders is Reo Hatate, who has not kicked a ball in anger yet this season.

Now, it’s very clear that Hatate has fallen out of favour with the manager.

In addition to that, the Celtic board are clearly trying to find a buyer for him to move him on.

There is zero point in keeping an unhappy midfielder at Celtic Park when he doesn’t want to be there.

As far as Hatate is concerned, he has done his dues for us, or at least he thinks he has anyway.

However, we have now been put in the position where we have no choice but to use him on Wednesday night.

This is simply due to the fact that we do not have enough midfielders available to us for this tie.

And let’s be fair here, if he does play a part, a disengaged and disinterested Reo Hatate is more of a liability than an asset to us.

We know how he plays for Celtic when his head is not in the game.

How the hell did we find ourselves in this position with such an important game looming?

But you know what’s even more ironic in this situation?

Panathinaikos are interested in Hatate, and it seems like they may be willing to pay the kind of seven figure sum the board is looking for.

In addition to this, they would be willing to pay him substantially more than he is earning at Celtic.

I’m sure Hatate’s agent has made him aware of this, and I’ve no doubt Hatate wants to leave.

Having to rely on a player in this kind of mindset to help us qualify for the Champions League is at best naive, and at worst, could be catastrophic.

A player who was already mentally checked out last season too.

But here’s the thing, even with Arne Engels gone, you could see the board cashing in on Hatate before they bring in any more replacements.

Many people say that Mika Baur is Hatate’s like for like replacement.

But that doesn’t change the fact that even with Hatate’s departure, we will still only have five first team ready midfielders available to us.

Waiting until after the CL qualifier to rectify this is madness.

Especially when we knew well in advance that we’d be losing Arne Engels.

Also allowing Paolo Bernardo to depart made no sense.

A lot of people would say that the same would apply to Arne Engels as Reo Hatate.

Engels was pushing for his move to West Ham, but whatever you want to say about Engels, he put in a shift in the two League games he took part in before his departure.

He didn’t hide like Hatate did for much of last season.

And is clearly continuing into this season when we take into consideration he has made no appearances as yet.

Now the board has put us in a position where we have to rely on him, simply because we have nobody else.

We might as well recall Odin Thiago Holm from his loan at Vålerenga at this stage.

The more you think about, the more crazy a situation it seems.

It smacks of last season’s Champions League qualifier, when the whole front line from the previous season had been practically been sold off before that one.

This time around, vital parts of the midfield have been allowed to leave, while one player is serving a suspension from 2023.

Putting us in a very precarious position.

Only this could happen at our club.

This lack of planning and foresight is endemic of our board.

And I’ll tell you what, I wouldn’t be surprised if they sell Hatate, and bank the money without still having brought in midfield replacements.

They’re gambling again with Champions League qualification.

Let’s hope that our frontline steps up and does the required damage on Wednesday night.

Because if they don’t, we could be in serious trouble.

As usual, this is a situation of our own making which was completely unnecessary.

And one that could have been completely avoided.

But that’s the Celtic board for you, isn’t it?

Always stumbling into calamitous situations of their own creation.

It was ever thus.

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