Neil Lennon believes that Hatem Abd Elhamed could turn out to be his best value summer signing.
The defender arrived from Hapoel Be’er Sheva in July with mixed messages over whether he was a right-back or a central defender.
Celtic fans have become used to ‘project signings’ players sold to develop and sell on to England were wondering about a 28-year-old who had already played in Belgium and Romania, barely making a ripple never mind a splash.
In his opening games Elhamed looked to be a ‘Steady Eddie’ but against Lazio on Thursday he was giving it the full range with step-overs and over-laps.
Jeremie Frimpong and Moritz Bauer look very capable in the same position but there is little doubt that Lennon has had his eyes opened by the way Elhamed has settled and impacted on his side.
The Celtic boss told the Daily Record:
For the money we bought him for he’s proving to be real value for money. But we looked and looked and looked at him. Then we looked at him again and were always wondering: ‘What’s wrong with him? Where is the flaw?’
Every time, though, we went back to him, looked at the footage again and looked at other players and finally we thought: ‘We’ve got to trust our eyes, trust our instincts.’
I’ve a good relationship with his agent who was waxing lyrical about Hatem … as agents do. But he has been true to his word so far – Hatem has been excellent. He has a good temperament and played strongly against Lazio.
He’s a good type. We’re still getting to know him as a personality. He’s very quiet away from the training ground but he’s a hungry boy and I like that. He has waited a long time for a chance like this one. He has done the rounds in Europe and Israel.
And there’s no shortage of quality there either. He had a wee back heel in the second half against Lazio and the crowd went potty – so did I! He’s capable. I don’t know whether he played further up the pitch when he was younger but you can see he’s comfortable on the ball.
The defensive side of his game was strong against Lazio, particularly in the first half, and his quality on the ball is very good. Hatem has a good pace about him as well. He can be delighted with his contribution. He gets a little bit frustrated not playing all the time but in the important games he has stood up and been brilliant for us.”
According to Soccerway Elhamed played 960 minutes for Dinamo Bucharest in 2014, followed by 7 minutes for Gent the following year.
