Chris Sutton played several years of Celtic to great success during his career. Since then, he has gone to establish himself as a popular pundit and continues to enjoy prominence in that field these days. The Englishman is known for keeping things straight and he proved that recently by criticising one of the Hoops’ players.
Celtic won their recent game against Kilmarnock by a comfortable 3-0 scoreline. Hatate grabbed a lot of headlines with a spectacular goal in that match.
But there is a different moment from Hatate which was pointed out by Sutton. The Japanese midfielder appeared to go down easily to a challenge from one of the Kilmarnock players.
The referee pointed to the spot, awarding a penalty kick to Celtic. However, the decision was later overturned due to VAR intervention.
Sutton criticises Celtic player for diving vs Kilmarnock
Sutton was clearly not a fan of the moment from Hatate and sounded more disappointed than anything else. As reported by 67 Hail Hail, the former Celtic player said while speaking on Sky Sports Football (08/10/23 at 11:20 am):
"“He should be booked for that, it’s a dive.“Hatate should be booked. He’s initiated the contact and gone down.“For a player who I admire very much, that’s really poor from Reo Hatate.”"
That clearly shows that Sutton is ready to give his honest take on a matter, no matter which colour jersey the player is wearing. Now, of course, there will be different opinions on the matter of whether it was a dive or not on the part of Hatate. Football is subjective for the most part.
What was clear though was that Hatate was playing at a higher level against Kilmarnock than he normally has this season. He scored arguably the goal of the season till now to open the scoring for Celtic. And then he got himself an assist too.
Celtic fans will be hoping that Hatate can keep performing like this on a consistent basis. There will be tougher tests ahead than Kilmarnock.