Celtic boss confirms club have plan to replace starter in the future

Celtic were pretty active in the recent summer transfer window, bringing in nine new players in total. Seven of them arrived on a permanent basis while two are on loan. Still, a lot of fans were left disappointed. The club did not bring in any established stars and they appeared to have missed out on strengthening in a couple of key positions as well.

There have been some question marks over the number one jersey at Celtic for a while. Joe Hart holds it firmly in his hands, but there were expectations that we might have seen a new goalkeeper arrive over the summer.

That wasn’t to be, despite links with the likes of Dominik Livakovic. Hart remained top of the pecking order, way ahead of Scott Bain and Benjamin Siegrist.

Hart though is 36 and his current three-year contract runs out at the end of this season. This means some form of decision over his Celtic future is needed as soon as possible, as the club need to plan ahead.

Celtic boss confirms club have plan to replace starter in the future

As reported by Football Scotland, Brendan Rodgers has confirmed that Celtic have a succession plan in place for Hart. The manager said:

"“There’s a plan in place for not only Joe, but throughout the squad. You always have to plan forward. But currently at this moment, Joe… I thought he was unfortunate to get sent off last weekend.“I think what doesn’t get highlighted is he made a great save for us at 0-0 before that. Listen, he’s at the age he’s at. He looks after himself so well, Joe, he’s in great physical shape.“But naturally, in every position you are always planning forward, whether it’s a goalkeeper, centre-half or centre forward, you always have to have an eye on the future.”"

It looks like we’ll have to wait a while longer to see how that plan for Hart unfolds. The upcoming Champions League matches will continue to be a good test for the experienced keeper. His penalty save against Feyenoord and other saves in that match helped show what he is still capable of.

Rodgers has a more immediate decision around Hart though. The red card against Livingston rules Hart out of Saturday’s match at Motherwell. Bain came off the bench then to see the match through to a 3-0 win for the Hoops. But is he the man for the jersey on Saturday?