With Celtic performing well in the 2023/24 Scottish Premiership campaign with five wins from six games, this week has become slightly dominated by contract extension talks.
Clearly Brendan Rodgers is already turning an eye to the future even though the upcoming clash with Motherwell takes precedence, and we have already seen full back Anthony Ralston sign a new four year deal, keeping him with us until the summer of 2027, and it seems we are not quite yet done on that front as meeting with the media to preview the game, our gaffer confirmed that all positions were under review, so with goalkeeper Joe Hart only having 12 months left on his contract, we could see progress on that front soon enough as well. For those who like a flutter on sports activities betting, there might be an odd or two out there that is of interest.
Joining Ralston in new deals were also skipper Callum McGregor and Israeli winger Liel Abada.
Fans already know that talks have been ongoing with Reo Hatate for quite a number of weeks now, and in the last 48 hours it has been reported that those talks are now closing in on a concrete deal.
The 25 year old versatile Japanese midfielder does still have three years remaining on his existing contract at Parkhead, but given his growing importance to us, we want him tied down for longer (and presumably with slightly better terms for him to fend off any additional future interest given the speculation we saw during the summer transfer window). Fellow countrymen Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi penned improved terms of their own earlier in the summer.
Speaking more specifically about progress on Hatate’s new deal, given it was previously reported that he wanted talks stalled until the window had closed, Rodgers confirmed that meetings with his agent had begun again since the turn of the month, and although he did not quite know how advanced they now were, as he was yet to receive an update from CEO Michael Nicholson, for those who like reading between the lines – whilst he was non committal, he certainly did not voice any concerns – preferring instead to just distance himself a little bit from the media claims that a deal was now close.
“I haven’t been made aware of that. I’ll speak to Michael for the latest but in fairness to the club, the club have been reaching out to the agent for quite some time. But where it’s at, I don’t know at this point.”
With three years left on his existing deal, and despite the more intense speculation about his future during the last few months that did not ultimately result in a transfer away from us, in spite of his small injury problems this season, he continues to be heavily involved in Rodgers’ plans, so it really feels like a matter of time before we can put this one to bed.
Obviously if his form continues to impress other clubs and the wider world of football, a slightly longer deal, with improved personal terms for the player, will not stop the speculation. But it does potentially put us in a slightly better position in the windows to come.
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