Celtic star appears to hint at exit if he doesn’t get game time

The amount of work needed to rebuild the Celtic squad for next season is immense. A potential new manager and Director of Football will have their work cut out with a number of areas in the team needing improvement.

The goalkeeper position will be as vital to get right as any. Vasilis Barkas was brought in last summer as he was viewed as the man who could be the man between the sticks at Parkhead for a long time. It is safe to say that things have not turned out that way for him, at least till now.

At one point of this season, third choice keeper Conor Hazard skipped over Scott Bain and the afformentioned Barkas to become the first choice keeper for a string of matches. Two penalty saves in the final to secure the Scottish Cup and the Quadruple Treble had made him the hero of the hour.

In his few games, Hazard did well considering his youth and the struggling defence in front of him. Since then he has dropped back behind both Bain and Barkas in the selection order though and finds himself back as third choice once again.

Hazard wants to be the number one at Celtic

Judging from his comments as reported by the Daily Record, the player clearly is aiming to be the number one at Parkhead eventually:

"“My main focus is I have to get game time. That has to be one of the non-negotiables now if I’m going to take the next step in my career.“With Celtic the main aim is to be number one and I’ll go back and do everything I can to nail that down. If that doesn’t work then I’ll look at the options.”"

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Of course, that is a good attitude to have for any player, especially one as young as Hazard. It is great to see his hunger to make his mark at Parkhead. But are first-team opportunities around the corner?

If he were to move on though, that could leave Celtic with a gap in cover. Neither Barkas nor Bain have managed to convince when it comes to being the long-term number one at the club.

And it would not be surprising if the Hoops did go after a new goalkeeper in the upcoming summer transfer window. But if that does end up being the case, Hazard could move further down the pecking order and ultimately leaving the club. That would be sad considering the fact that he has shown decent potential when on the pitch and could very well be a good goalkeeper in the future.