Proactive rather than reactive has been the way of it under Ange Postecoglou as the Celtic boss has made a habit of jumping rather than waiting to be pushed.
Alistair Johnston was signed as a contingency plan for Josip Juranovic before the Croatian had even decided on his next move while Giorgos Giakoumakis hasn't yet been announced as an Atlanta United player and Hyeongyu Oh has already made his Celtic debut. Contract-wise, his squad is in good shape, with the vast majority of players only arriving within the last few years, but we've already seen signs of his forward planning being applied to tie players down.
Giakoumakis, under contract until 2026, was allowed to leave after talks over a new deal collapsed and the same goes for Juranovic with Postecoglou taking no chances of letting players run their deals down. James Forrest extended his stay until 2025 in the summer and attentions are now likely to turn to three players whose deals, as things stand, are up at the end of next season.
Aaron Mooy has been their standout player of 2023 so far and while he's 32 and unlikely to commit his future until 2026 or 2027, Celtic will likely be keen to extend his deal for a year at least, in order to avoid a potential headache over his future this time next year. The same goes for keeper Joe Hart, while David Turnbull, at 23, is a player who could soon be at a crossroads given his lack of game time recently. The nature of the Celtic squad, assembled so quickly and efficiently over the space of 18 months, means a lot of players are out of contract at the same time, so talks will be ongoing to get some of the 2025 and 2026 players extended. Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers just signed their first permanent deals in the summer so they won't be top priorities with three-and-a-half years left to run, but Kyogo is still on the first contract he signed and after 22 goals this season, is likely to be rewarded soon.
One player who is yet to sign permanently at all is Tomoki Iwata and it's understood the club have until June 9 to decide whether they want to keep him beyond his initial loan from Yokohama F. Marinos. Postecoglou got a good look at him in the second half against Morton while he also got a few minutes off the bench against Livingston last weekend, so he'll be hoping to make his mark between now and the summer and show he has a major part to play.
Celtic contract expiry dates in full
2023 : Conor Hazard, Tomoki Iwata (loan expires)
2024 : Joe Hart, Scott Bain, Aaron Mooy, David Turnbull
2025 : James McCarthy, James Forrest, Carl Starfelt, Greg Taylor, Anthony Ralston, Stephen Welsh, Kyogo Furuhashi
2026 : Benjamin Siegrist, Callum McGregor, Giorgos Giakoumakis, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Matt O'Riley, Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate, Liel Abada
2027 : Jota, Sead Haksabanovic, Alexandro Bernabei, Alistair Johnston
2028 : Yuki Kobayashi, Hyeongyu Oh
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