Nobody can dispute Hart’s phenomenal success at Celtic since he left Spurs for £1 million less than three years ago.
Despite all of his flaws, the seasoned goalie has kept us in several games this season, and it will be very hard to replace him.
The Celtic supporters who have become so fond of Hart over the years will also miss him much.
Who then has his position in the future? Are the names of Celtic even in a list? If not, I believe this one may work well and be completely free this summer.
The next Celtic may be Alex Meret. Joe Hart
This season, the Italian team’s goalie at Napoli has been playing well. Meret, the champion of the Italian Cup and Serie A, has an expiring contract this summer.
For €25 million (£22 million), Napoli acquired Meret from Udinese in 2018. [ESPN]
Meret’s current contract only needs him to play 70% of Napoli’s first-team games this season in order for the extension to take effect, therefore his agency is optimistic that they can get a one-year extension.
That doesn’t appear to be a problem since Meret’s name is the first one on the team sheet. What may happen, however, is that his agent is reportedly quoting TuttuMercato as stating he is working for a better and longer contract for Meret and he may quit the club if he doesn’t receive it.
Meret now makes £49k a week at the Italian powerhouses, but if Celtic were to make a bid, they could use the money they save on a transfer fee to increase the 26-year-old goalkeeper’s pay. [PaySport]
Stats and being a Celtic No. 1 for Alex Meret
This season, Meret has made 22 appearances for Napoli; he has four clean sheets, 25 goals against, and an average rating of 6.61 on Footmob.
He has made 49 saves this season which ranks in the middle of the Serie A top performers with a save success rate of over 66%. Not bad considering he is coming up against some of the best strikers in Europe.
Meret has faced 2 penalties and saved one this season but he has one of the lowest stats for claiming high balls at just four.
The 26-year-old has a passing accuracy of 81.7% and has attempted 84 long balls with a success rate of just over 45%.
He also has three caps for Italy. Meret clearly has talent and has areas of his game he needs to tidy up but so did Hart and it didn’t stop him becoming a success at Celtic.
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