Celtic will do well to survive the summer transfer window without selling any of their top assets.
Nicolas Kuhn has been linked with Leeds United and Newcastle United this year, while Daizen Maeda also appears to be attracting Premier League attention.
The latest Celtic transfer rumour actually swirls around midfielder Reo Hatate, who has been at the club since the 2021/22 campaign under Ange Postecoglou.
Valued at £10m, Hatate is being watched by Serie A’s Udinese and the Italian side have reportedly sent scouts to attend Celtic games of late.
French and German clubs are also said to be keen on the 27-year-old who has two years remaining on his current Hoops deal.
Reo Hatate told top five Premier League club won’t sign him
Hatate has been open about playing in one of Europe’s top five leagues. That ambition could be realised this summer, but Peter Grant doesn’t think a top five Premier League club will sign him.
Grant effectively told The Go Radio Football Show that Hatate is capable of playing in the English top-flight, but just not for one of the top teams.
Grant: “You’re probably looking at him, say you went to the Premiership in England, whatever team is going to sign him, I don’t think it’s going to be a top four or top five team or anything like that.
And that’s no disrespect to him. It’s not like Celtic where they’re going to dominate the game and have the ball all the time. So that’s maybe something that people would look at.
Paul Cooney: “And is that his stature as well, maybe comes into it for England?”
Grant: “But not necessarily his stature, Paul, just his recovery because the game changes that quick. And there are a lot of athletes down there.
What Hatate has said about life after Celtic
Across the summer 2024 transfer window, Hatate was in the news quite a lot as speculation over a possible Celtic exit heightened.
He was linked with Tottenham Hotspur and was reportedly the subject of a failed bid from an unnamed French club towards the end of August.
Celtic obviously rejected the advance, particularly because they had just sold Matt O’Riley to Brighton & Hove Albion for a record £26m.
In July last year, Hatate admitted he wants to play in the Premier League. He said: “There are still many higher leagues [in Europe], so if I can challenge for those leagues, I want to do so.
“Unless I aim for that, there is no point in continuing as an athlete, so I want to keep aiming high.
“I would like to play in the Premier League, as well as in Spain and Italy, which I am personally interested in.”
