Celtic manager Martin O'Neill says out of favour midfielder Reo Hatate could still have a role to play at the Scottish Premiership club this season if he remains past the end of the transfer window.
The 28-year-old Japanese international has become an increasingly peripheral figure at Parkhead, having been an unused substitute in each of Celtic's three competitive matches at the start of the current campaign.
Hatate faces another obstacle to regaining his place following the arrival of Mika Baur. Greek club Panathinaikos are interested in offering the midfielder a route out of Glasgow, but O'Neill is adamant his time at the club is not necessarily over.
"I think there are a number of tentative enquiries," O'Neill said. "Nothing has come up that is beneficial to him or the football club. But that might change."
Midfield options
O'Neill indicated he would be content to keep the player if a move fails to materialise before the deadline.
"If it did not change, I would be happy," he said. "Reo is a fine footballer. He has dropped down the pecking order at this moment. But if he could recapture the form he showed two seasons ago he would still be an asset."
The Celtic boss acknowledged the frustration of squad members struggling for game time.
"Any player who feels as if they are being squeezed and they want to play and they feel they are not going to play then playing is the most important thing," he said.
"Paulo (Bernardo) has gone on loan because he did not want to be sitting in the stand for games," O'Neill explained.
"And while no one pushed him out the door, he thought we might try to get another of couple of players in, so he has gone on loan certainly until January."
Balikwisha future
Michel-Ange Balikwisha appears to face a more difficult path back into the starting lineup. The winger, a £4.5 million signing from Belgian side Antwerp, has not featured for Celtic since a match against Auchinleck in January.
"Again there has been interest, nothing that Balikwisha will be wanting to do at this moment," O'Neill said.
"I am hoping that at some stage or another if nothing materialises, he would get opportunities. But I cannot promise that. I said to him in my first spell that the next manager coming in might want him. And then he was disappointed when the next manager was me."
Champions League play-off
Celtic face LASK in the first leg of their Champions League play-off round tie on Wednesday, with a place in the group stage of Europe's elite club competition at stake.
O'Neill admitted he holds similar concerns about the Austrian double winners to those he felt before playing Swiss club Basel in a 2002 qualifier. During his first spell in charge, Celtic reached the group stage by beating Dutch side Ajax, only to be eliminated by Basel on away goals the following year after a 3-3 aggregate draw.
"I have experienced it. Ajax was a real high and then there was the real low of Basel," O'Neill recalled. "I saw Chris Sutton in the last minute (away) and to me it was in, but it wasn't."
He praised the quality of that Basel team, noting they proved their strength in subsequent years by knocking English Premier League side Manchester United out of the competition.
"They were a very fine side Basel, as they proved in the subsequent years, knocking Manchester United out and so on," he said. "They could play and I have the same concerns about LASK."
"The reports have come in that they are pretty strong. They won the Austrian double last season after coming from behind. They have a couple of decent players. There were easier ties out there."
Tactical adjustments
The manager is also considering tactical shifts to accommodate new attacking players, noting the team should be able to adapt their formation.
"Of course, it's good to have that firepower," O'Neill said. "Haissem (Hassan) coming in, you'd probably want to play him wide right, where he can beat players and go outside."
"It's about looking at systems we want to play. We've been pretty rigid in 4-3-3 but we should be able to change," he added. "I think (Camilo) Duran is a fine player, and I don't see why he couldn't play just off the centre forward."
"Therefore, we have to look at different ways of playing. It shouldn't be that difficult, in terms of shifting players a few yards, but it's just a case of practising it."
"It's far better to have the options. Of course it is. Sometimes you think, 'oh gosh, how are we going to do this?', but sometimes it just develops."
