Former Scotland international and Tottenham Hotspur fullback Alan Hutton believes that Nir Bitton’s time at Celtic is now probably over, with his contract coming to an end when the 2019/20 campaign comes to a close.
The 28-year-old Israeli international arrived at the club back in 2013, and he’s gone on to make well over 100 appearances for us since then, and he does have 15 appearances to his name to date, although the majority of those have come in the European campaigns.
Hutton’s line of thinking whilst talking to Football Insider is pretty obvious and simplistic really – he bases the thought purely on the assumption that if manager Neil Lennon was already sure he wanted him with us for the 2020/21 campaign, the club would’ve already organised a new contract extension for him.
“He’s a very good player, sometimes you could say maybe underused, his contract’s running down. He’s one that I probably think would let it run down and get the move down south, that seems the way he’s going to go with it. It happens at all the clubs, you’re not playing as much as you like, you need a fresh challenge, go somewhere different. I think if he was an integral part of the plans going forward, the contract wouldn’t have run down this much. Maybe that’s a way they’re looking at it at the moment.”
The logic isn’t flawed when it comes to the versatile player in some ways, but Hutton hasn’t taken account of the injury issues the player has had in recent times, so his focus for now will just be building himself back up further, finding more confidence and form and enjoying himself on the pitch.
If there are any lingering doubts about his longer term future – especially given September’s absence – that could explain the current lack of action, and there’s plenty of time left yet before he’s a free agent to rectify that if we want. He certainly hasn’t been frozen out, after all.
Does Hutton Have A Point?
Yes
No
Everything in its own time.
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