Ange Postecoglou isn’t expecting to lose Stephen Welsh in the last days of the transfer window.
The defender has only made six appearances this season with injury, illness and new signings restricting him since he got off to a flying start with the first goal of the season in the opener against Aberdeen.
Moritz Jenz came in for Welsh in the next match away to Ross County, kept his place through six Champions League ties before cutting his loan short in midweek to join Schalke 04.
The arrival of Yuki Kobayashi from Vissel Kobe accelerated the decision on Jenz but it seems that Postecoglou wants to retain Welsh and Kobayashi as back up to Carl Starfelt and Cameron Carter-Vickers.
Discussing options in central defence, The Scotsman reports Postecoglou saying:
There was speculation but he [Welsh] wasn’t likely to leave. I thought Moritz did really well for us. He hadn’t played a lot over the second half of the year in France and we picked him up. The whole idea was to bring him into the environment so we got him on a loan with an option to buy.
I thought he did well for us but obviously as the season went on I was really keen to bring in Yuki Kobayashi, who I had been tracking as a left-sided centre-back. Once we got that deal done it meant that there was going to be limited opportunities for someone like Moritz.
This time last year Starfelt and Carter-Vickers were setting off on an incredible run of playing every minute of the final 18 SPFL matches of the season as Celtic lifted the Premiership title.
That sort of consistency is very rare, both players have had their injury problems this season but are expected to be reunited away to Dundee United this afternoon.