Celtic have been heavily linked with the signing of Reo Hatate. Until today, we were under the impression the player was available for free come the end of January.
However, top journalist Dan Orlowitz has revealed Hatate’s club Frontale are holding out for a decent fee – meaning his contract might not be up at the end of January.
One interesting part of Kyodo's reporting: they note Frontale are pushing back b/c they want "much more" than what Celtic are offering for Hatate.
Which tells you that his contract isn't ending, despite whatever you may have read from click-merchants.https://t.co/0RpB5MFSjp
— x Dan Orlowitz (@aishiterutokyo) December 5, 2021
Celtic have been linked to three J-League stars in recent weeks, fans excited about the potential that brings after the success of Kyogo.
Hatate has been branded a left back by the Scottish media, but we don’t believe that’s completely correct or the position Ange wants to bring the player in for.
Juco James on social media has done some digging on Wyscout and revealed this season hate has played 4283 minutes of football; he’s played 1,101 minutes at left back but the majority of his time has been played in the midfield – racking up 2,693 minutes in various midfield roles.
It will be interesting to see if Celtic can get this deal done relatively quickly. There is the winter break in January, so there isn’t a massive rush if players aren’t being earmarked to come in and go straight in for the Glasgow Derby before the winter shutdown.
