The arrival of Yuki Kobayashi meant that one of two things would happen.
Either Stephen Welsh would be out the door this transfer window or Moritz Jenz.
With the lack of game time that Welsh has gotten so far this season, the smart money would have been on the young Scot to leave the club.
But that is not to be.
According to Scott Burns at the Daily Record, it is Jenz that is ‘set to quit’ Paradise almost immediately after dropping dramatically out of the first team since the re-emergence of Carl Starfelt.
EXCLUSIVE: Moritz Jenz set to leave Celtic NOW as Lorient loan deal to be cut short amid lack of game time | @ScottBurns75https://t.co/e8eOApxMPW pic.twitter.com/NiTRL2TCFl
— Record Celtic Podcast (@DR_Celtic) January 24, 2023
Starfelt returned from a two-month layoff and automatically replaced the German as Cameron Carter-Vickers partner in the heart of Celtic’s defence.
Since then, Jenz has hardly featured in the match-day squad and young Hoop, Bosun Lawal, was preferred on Saturday on the bench for the Scottish Cup tie against Morton.
With Yuki Kobayashi preferred to start against St Mirren and Stephen Welsh for the bench, Jenz is now looking like fifth-choice defender and it now looks like he has grown frustrated with his sudden exclusion from first-team affairs.
Jenz may well find himself disappointed as he has impressed this season but it is clear he was brought in as a short-term measure in what looks like an astute piece of transfer business by Ange Postecoglou.