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Ange Postecoglou openly discusses three possible January departures

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Ange Postecoglou has openly discussed the January departures of James McCarthy, Yosuke Ideguchi and Oliver Abildgaard.

The arrival of Tomoki Iwata effectively gives the Celtic both two sets of midfielders with Callum McGregor, Reo Hatate and Aaron Mooy the first choice with Matt O’Riley, David Turnbull and Iwata as back up.

Places on the bench are no a rarity for McCarthy, Ideguchi and Abildgaard but any movement before Wednesday is in the hands of the player.

The Scotsman reports:

Career progress, meanwhile, isn’t going to be forthcoming at Celtic for completely out of the picture trio James McCarthy, Oliver Abilgaard and Yosuke Ideguchi. Fresh starts for all three in the next few days would be best for all concerned, Postecoglou effectively acknowledges.

“We’ll see,” he said. “I’m in dialogue with those guys. It’s not about forcing people out but there is a realism in terms of how much opportunity you get to play. If you mention those three, they are at an age where the less football they play the fewer options they will have. They have to assess what’s best for their careers.

“As I said I’m in dialogue with them and we will see what happens in the last days of the window. If nothing happens then they are still part of our group and we will work with them accordingly.”

Abildgaard should be the easiest to shift, signing on a season long loan he finds himself in a similar situation to Moritz Jenz who moved to Schalke 04 in midweek.

The arrival of Iwata adds extra competition to an area of the pitch that Celtic were already strong in, Turnbull has scored in Celtic’s last two matches but isn’t expected to be in the starting XI at Dundee United on Sunday.

With his fourth transfer window almost completed the squad is very much the one that Ange built but for the club there are nine players out on loan- including Albian Ajeti, Ismaila Soro and Vasilis Barkas- that are all due back in the summer with time on their lucrative contracts.

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