Celtic Target Haissem Hassan Amid Midfield Concerns

The noise around Celtic Park is growing again. Not about a title race, not yet, but about a winger who might just light one up.

Haissem Hassan, the Egyptian World Cup forward, is on the brink of becoming Celtic’s latest summer arrival. The deal is not over the line, the scarf has not yet been held aloft in front of the Jock Stein Stand, and the club have made no official announcement. Until that moment, there will be a healthy dose of scepticism among supporters who have seen enough “done deals” unravel at the last minute.

If it lands, though, this one matters.

Hassan would be the third attacking signing of the window, joining Kasper Hogh and Camilo Duran in a rebuilt front line that suddenly looks far less predictable, far more dangerous. Hogh brings a focal point, Duran offers guile, and Hassan, if he arrives as billed, adds direct running and end product from wide areas.

That’s an encouraging shift. It is not the priority.

Midfield numbers – and legs – running out

Once the Hassan chase is resolved one way or another, Celtic’s gaze has to move infield. The middle of the park is where this squad is creaking.

Arne Engels is expected to move on before the window closes. Reo Hatate is heading for the exit as well. Paulo Bernardo has already gone. Strip those names out of the squad list and the picture becomes stark.

Right now, the central options are Callum McGregor, Benjamin Nygren, Luke McCowan and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Four players, one of them the captain who has carried this team for years, another with a long history of injuries, and two more who, while in their prime, are not exactly known for blistering pace.

The word that keeps coming back when you look at that group is simple: energy. Or rather, the lack of it.

McGregor remains the heartbeat, but he is no longer in his peak years and cannot be expected to press, probe and protect with the same relentless intensity he once did. Oxlade-Chamberlain still sees passes others miss and can break lines with a touch or a feint, yet the miles in his legs are obvious. Nygren and McCowan are tidy, intelligent footballers, but neither transforms the tempo of a game on his own.

Celtic need more. Not one body. At least a couple. Players who can run, harry, cover ground and still have the quality to keep the ball when the pressure comes.

The long-standing Achilles heel

This is not a new problem. Celtic’s lack of dynamism in midfield has been an open secret for years, and it has bitten hardest on the biggest stages.

Domestically, the side can often get away with it. Possession comes easily in the Scottish Premiership, and the technical ability of McGregor and company is usually enough to control games. When the pace rises, though, when opponents match Celtic stride for stride, the flaws become glaring.

In Europe, it has been brutal. Teams with sharper legs and quicker transitions have poured through the centre of the pitch too often. The gaps between midfield and defence have been exposed, the press has broken, and Celtic have looked what they are: short of power and athleticism in the engine room.

You can call it shape, tactics, experience. Strip it all back and it comes down to one thing – the middle of the park has not had enough running in it.

That cannot continue if Celtic want to be more than flat-track bullies at home.

Defence steady, attack refreshed – but the core is fragile

Elsewhere, the rebuild looks more controlled. A new goalkeeper is on the shopping list, and a back-up left-back is expected, with Greg Taylor likely to fill that role. Those are important tweaks, but they are tweaks all the same. The defence, as a unit, is not in crisis.

Up front, there has been a clear effort to refresh. Hogh has already given the attack a different dimension. Duran’s early glimpses suggest a player who can knit moves together and find space where there seems to be none. If Hassan does sign, Celtic will suddenly have a front line with options, variety and genuine competition for places.

The contrast with midfield is stark. The spine of the team, the area that dictates how Celtic play with and without the ball, looks fragile, vulnerable and, once Engels and Hatate depart, dangerously thin.

This is where the bulk of the remaining budget and attention has to go. Not to another luxury attacker. Not to a vanity signing. To the kind of midfielders who can drag this team through difficult spells, who can close down space in Europe, who can let McGregor manage games rather than firefight them.

The next decisive move

So yes, the Hassan chase is exciting. Supporters will rightly look forward to seeing another World Cup-level talent in green and white if the deal is completed.

But the real judgement on this window will not be made on the wings. It will be made in the centre circle.

Celtic have already strengthened the attack. The defence is stable enough with minor surgery. The season’s trajectory will be shaped by what comes next: do they finally fix the midfield that has held them back, or do they go into another campaign with the same old weakness at the very heart of the team?