Nir Bitton looked certain to leave Celtic this summer but is currently a regular member of the first-team again.
Celtic’s failure to bring in a new defender on deadline day looks to have a silver lining for one Nir Bitton.
The Israeli midfielder’s new found versatility appears to have salvaged a Celtic career that looked over this summer with Brendan Rodgers’ side hardly short of options in the centre of the park.
Bitton was already behind Scott Brown, Stuart Armstrong and Tom Rogic in the pecking order but the additions of Olivier Ntcham, Kundai Benyu and Kouassi Eboue, not to mention the emergence of Callum McGregor as a first-team regular, did him no favours.
However, the 25-year-old, whose languid style was at odds with Rodgers’ high intensity approach in midfield, has featured far more regularly than anyone expected this season – albeit in a new role.
Injuries to both Dedryck Boyata and Erik Sviatchenko left Celtic short at the back and Bitton has stepped in to good effect, ensuring the champions have conceded just two goals in the four league games he has played at centre-half.
Though a worrying 4-3 collapse against Astana in the second leg of a triumphant Champions League knockout tie highlighted Bitton’s lack of pace and positional sense as a potential problem against better opposition, Rodgers knows he can count on him to fill in during the bread and butter of the domestic campaign.
To Bitton’s credit, he always insisted that he wanted to remain at Parkhead and there were no public criticism of Twitter rants when Rodgers left him out of the side last season.
And Celtic’s failure to land Rivaldo Coetzee, whose medical from Ajax Cape Town collapsed after he failed a medical, could be the catalyst to ensuring he still has a future at Celtic.
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