FOUR YEARS AGO, I would have reluctantly accepted Reo Hatate being lured from Celtic to one of the game’s superpowers such as Barcelona.
Today, I am just a tad dumbfounded a player gifted with mesmerising skills, the sort of God-given talent to illuminate a sporting arena on the greyest of evenings, has joined Burnley.
No disrespect to the Lancashire club who play at Turf Moor to an average attendance of 21,000, but I very much doubt if a team languishing second bottom of the English Championship was in Hatate’s thoughts as he mapped out his career path and talked about his dream of performing in one of Europe’s top five leagues.
Hatate’s somersault in status has been nothing short of extraordinary.
You and I smiled in gleeful anticipation of what lay ahead following our first sightings of the player brought to the club by Ange Postecoglou in January 2022 as part of a triple swoop on the J-League along with Daizen Maeda and Yosuke Ideguchi.
To say Hatate hit the ground running would be a monumental understatement.
HANDS UP IF YOU’RE HAPPY…joy Bhoys Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda celebrate after Celtic’s 3-0 derby triumph over Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Ibrox side in February 2022.
This naturally-gifted and intelligent operator, hitherto unknown to most of us, exploded onto the scene with a mesmerising Man-of-the-Match display in a 2-0 triumph over Hibs at Parkhead on January 17, the first game after the winter break.
Maeda may have scored a debut goal inside four minutes, but it was Hatate who luxuriated in the spotlight.
He took centre stage again with a wonderful net-bulging strike in the crucial 2-1 victory over Hearts at Tynecastle in the next league outing. At that stage of the campaign, Postecoglou’s side were pursuing Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Ibrox side who were leading the league.
Another extraordinary showing from Hatate toppled the Govan club from their pedestal when he lashed in two goals and set up another for Liel Abada in a whirlwind first-half in a one-sided 3-0 derby romp at Parkhead.
Just how special was that thoroughly enjoyable evening, played out in the chill and frost of early February in the east end of Glasgow, as pride was restored in Paradise?
Celtic climbed atop the Premiership pinnacle for the first time in 18 months that unforgettable night.
And they remained in pole position as they went all the way to lift their tenth crown in 11 years.
CAPITAL PERFORMANCE…Reo Hatate runs away in triumph after leaving Craig Gordon helpless with a thunderous strike in the 2-0 victory at Tynecastle in January 2022.
Hatate brought brightness to a corner of the city that had been cloaked in darkness and despair just 12 months earlier. He should be forever remembered for the role he played in helping the club turn an enormous corner.
Sadly, though, the playmaker, proving he was only human, faltered somewhat along the way to the stage he became a bit-part player in Martin O’Neill’s set-up.
That would have been a preposterous situation, an unthinkable circumstance considering his breathtaking accomplishments as he announced himself to the Celtic fans only a week or so after arriving in the country.
As the light dimmed a little in his influence on those around him, I discussed the matter with Celtic legend Davie Hay, one of the most knowledgeable football men it has ever been my honour and pleasure to call a friend.
That conversation took place just over four years ago – August 12 2022, to be precise – and the interview featured in CQN. You can check it out here.
Davie’s thoughts proved to be chillingly accurate. He told me: “Reo’s early impressions were nothing short of phenomenal.
“It was almost impossible to believe he had played a full season in the J-League and had come to Celtic without a real rest and recuperation period to slot straight into Ange Postecoglou’s first team.
FAREWELL TO THE HOOPS…Reo Hatate’s final appearance as Celtic topple out of the Champions League in Austria.
“However, anyone who has ever played the game must have realised there would be a reaction somewhere along the line.
“Hatate would have had to be superhuman to continue to perform at that level. Unless he had a lungs and legs transplant without anyone’s knowledge, he would have to ease off at some point.
“The player himself admitted he was running out of puff as the season edged towards the finishing line.
“That is wholly understandable. The Reo Hatate we saw in January and February was not the Reo Hatate we witnessed in April and May.
“There is no doubt Reo took a lot of his opponents by surprise following his initial introduction.
“They now know what to expect when he lines up against them and they will have designs to nullify his strengths.
“Such is the price of fame in football. Reo will now get special treatment, fair or foul, from opponents.
“In short, he will be a marked man. If his threat is not nullified, he has the quality to run amok.”
It’s accurate to say that Hatate did take more than his fair share of dull ones from the opposition, but I would suggest that was only part of the jigsaw that saw him part with the distinction of being an automatic first pick for any of his managers.
There were occasions when his mind appeared to be elsewhere. At the beginning of last season, Hatate mentioned that his greatest ambition was to play for Japan in the World Cup Finals.
Head coach Hajime Moriyasu wasn’t sufficiently impressed by the player’s achievements at club level to elevate him into the 25-man international squad.
Hatate will celebrate his 29th birthday in November and it is unlikely he will figure in the 2030 global extravaganza, assuming, of course, his nation are involved.
That’s a criminal waste of talent.
Hatate, as we all witnessed back in 2022, is a performer who should be mixing with the game’s creme de la creme.
Barcelona – and not Burnley – would have been a more suitable platform for an artiste who may well have produced his best football in the green-and-white hoops of Celtic.
For that, we can all be forever grateful.
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