Hatate interest, Atalanta’s cut-price plan, O’Riley urged to stay, Lagerbielke’s choice

Reo Hatate is a potential transfer target for Leicester City, according to a report by Stephen McGowan of the Scottish Daily Mail. Celtic, the report claims are aware of the interest but no bid has been received.

Reo Hatate of course was one of many Celtic stand-outs in the 4-1 win over Chelsea at the weekend and that Celtic performance is only going to attract interest in numerous players who looked better that their opponents in the last match of Celtic’s USA Tour.

Hatate, Matt O’Riley and Kyogo were outstanding and likely to receive greater transfer scrutiny as a result and you can also add Nicolas Kuhn to that for his display against Manchester City.

One player who does look set to leave Celtic shortly is Swedish defender Gus Lagerbielke, who was used by Brendan Rodgers in all three games in the USA, coming off the bench on each occasion. The Celtic manager was asked about the 24 year old defender’s future at the club after the match on Saturday.

“It just all depends. Gus has shown a terrific attitude,” Rodgers said, as reported by Scottish Sun. “He didn’t get so much game time last season but he’s got his head down. He had the chance to go on loan in January, but we needed to keep him due to the injuries we had in that position. But he’s worked very hard over pre-season and we’ll see what happens.

“You see the players are happy and working well, but all players want to play. If they can’t get the game time with us, they may look elsewhere. In this moment Gus is working very hard and when he is asked, he comes in and does well.”

Meanwhile Luis Palma cleared up the mystery surrounding Matt O’Riley and his own rather strange goal celebrations against Chelsea, explaining that it related to Nicolas Kuhn who had to sit out the Chelsea game after complaining about a back problem in training. Palma also added his voice to Callum McGregor’s in urging O’Riley to stay at the club this season.

“Matt’s celebration was for Nicolas Kuhn. He had a sore back so he was saying he was an old man!

“He is a phenomenal player. There is a lot of talk about him but he doesn’t let it affect him.”

Reports in Italy over the weekend claim that O’Riley’s preference is a move to Atalanta, where he will get Champions League football with last season’s Europa League winners. The Serie A side though have already had three offers rejected and appear to be working on a strategy to lower Celtic’s price demands from £25m. Good luck with that approach!

Southampton would be better turning their attentions elsewhere as they’re an increasingly unlikely choice for O’Riley, who will certainly look to make his choice for sound footballing reasons. The idea of starring in the new look Champions League with Brendan Rodgers’ improving Celtic side before getting an even bigger move next summer must sure be a serious consideration for the sought after midfielder.

Both O’Riley and Hatate are players whose valuation can soar under Rodgers and surely that is also a consideration for the Celtic Board? Reo has never hidden his desire to play in a bigger league, so he may be the one who is tempted to take the first offer that comes along.