First class’: Celtic’s £150k sale looks an error now with star in ‘outstanding’ form

The Championship’s joint-top scorer – and one-time Rangers target – swept home a typically sumptuous winner in South Wales, the quality and the timing of Whittaker’s finish explaining why Serie A giants Lazio were so keen to sign him during the January transfer window. But, at the other end of the pitch, it was Plymouth’s former Celtic ‘keeper who laid the foundations for Whittaker to build upon, Conor Hazard pulling off a trio of superb stops for an Argyle side who have lost only once in nine games since promoting him to the role of ‘number one’. e has been outstanding since I have come into the football club, and he’s going to have to be.

We are Plymouth Argyle and every game for us is going to be difficult in this division,” head coach Ian Foster, who was appointed in January after Steven Schumacher left for Stoke City, tells BBC Devon. “We’re going to have to defend really well with 11. We will protect him as much as we possibly can but there is times where he’s going to have to make big saves for us. “His attitude and application since I have been here has been first class. He’s a big boy and he’s capable of making big saves and he has proved that.”

‘Outstanding’ Hazard spent nearly a decade at Celtic until his departure in the summer of 2023. He made only five Scottish Premiership appearances for the Glasgow giants, however, though some may argue that the club’s already under-fire recruitment department may have been better off keeping Hazard and instead cashing in on Scott Bain or Benjamin Siegrist, particularly with neither ‘keeper seemingly under consideration for the top job when Joe Hart’s contract expires. According to some reports, Plymouth paid just £150,000 for Hazard.

A deal which is proving to be one of the finest bargains in England’s second tier. Celtic, meanwhile, are being linked with a number of goalkeepers with Hart set to become a free-agent in a number of months. Hakon Valdimarsson and Horatiu Moldovan have already slipped through Brendan Rodgers’ fingers, however, joining Brentford and Atletico Madrid respectively.

MORE NEWS ON CELTIC HERE