Celtic could sign Engels & Hatate rival with 296 Premier League appearances

Celtic’s superb season continued on Wednesday night, pulling seven points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership table, thanks to a 1-0 victory over title challengers Aberdeen at Pittodrie.

Reo Hatate’s delightful chest control and finish, having been magnificently played in behind by Greg Taylor, was enough to see the Hoops collect all three points in the North East.

Brendan Rodgers’ side have therefore collected 40 points out of a possible 42 in the league, are through to the League Cup Final, firm favourites to beat Rangers at Hampden in ten days’ time, while the Celts also currently find themselves on course to reach the Champions League knockout phase, ahead of Tuesday’s crucial trip to Zagreb.

While all is well on the pitch, transfer chatter is never too far away, given how successful Celtic’s player trading model has been for well over a decade, so could they go in for a rather well-known Premier League star?

Could Christian Eriksen move to Celtic?

According to a report by Football Insider, Celtic are targeting a move for Manchester United midfielder Christian Eriksen, claiming Rodgers would like to add some European experience, as Celtic seek to break new ground, in modern terms anyway, in the Champions League.

There are however, plenty of caveats and obstacles, not least the fact that Erkisen is earning £150k-per-week, while Celtic’s highest-paid player, long-standing captain Callum McGregor, earns merely a quarter of that, his reported wages of £37k-per-week, having signed a new, five-year contract in July 2023.

Football Insider concede that this would preclude any potential move in January but Eriksen, who will celebrate his 33rd birthday on Valentine’s Day, is out of contract next summer, so is currently set to be available on a Bosman.

Fabrizio Romano has previously stated that he believes Erkisen will depart Man United at the end of the season, so could a move to the serial Scottish champions be on the cards?

How Christian Eriksen compares to Matt O’Riley

In the summer, Celtic sold Matt O’Riley to Brighton for a £25m fee, equaling the record sale for a Scottish club, alongside Kieran Tierney’s move to Arsenal five years earlier, as well as the fee paid by Saudi Pro League side Al-Ittihad for Jota’s services in 2023.

So would Erkisen, a man boasting 296 Premier League appearances, represent a good replacement for his Danish international teammate O’Riley?

Back in his prime, the Dane was certainly a creative marvel but is that still his game? As outlined in the table above, taking data from the start of the 2022/23 season onwards, O’Riley and Erkisen have very different player profiles in the current day.

O’Riley is deployed significantly higher up the park and is much more of a goal threat, hence why he’s scored more goals, provided more assists and had substantially more shots during this period.

Eriksen used to play like that during his peak at Tottenham but is now much more of a deep-lying, Andrea Pirlo-esque, conductor, emphasised by the fact he produced almost seven times as many passes and had close to six times as many touches.

“I’m not sure that Christian Eriksen would get into the [Celtic] team. He is a classy player… but I’m not sure who he would come in to replace” adding “you’d have to consider the wages… I can’t see it happening.” – Neil Lennon on Eriksen.

As Lennon says above, it may be quite difficult to envisage where he fits into the side. The Hoops are well-stocked in midfield as it is, spending a decent amount of the £25m free received for O’Riley on Arne Engels, who arrived from Augsburg for a club-record £11m on Deadline Day.

Back in September, during the shellacking of Slovan Bratislava, Engles became only the second Celtic player to both score and assist in a Champions League match, after Henrik Larsson, who wasn’t bad was he?

The Belgian, who’s also become a full-international this season, alongside mid-week match-winner Reo Hatate, have been first-choice for the majority of this season, but Rodgers also has Paulo Bernardo, whose loan move was made permanent at a cost of £3.5m this summer, as well as new-arrival Luke McCowan at his disposal. Plenty of options but Eriksen could well be a fine rival to the current crop at Parkhead.