Raskin, Hatate and Miller – Aspirations and realities in transfer window

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The Celtic Star

·18 giugno 2025

Raskin, Hatate and Miller – Aspirations and realities in transfer window

If Nicolas Raskin is worth £25 million, what price should Motherwell charge for Lennon Miller or Celtic should demand to transfer Reo Hatate?

Reo Hatate of Celtic reacts after scoring his team’s third goal during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic FC and Hibernian FC at Celtic Park on May 10, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Reo Hatate is currently back home in Japan, still nursing the injury to his knee picked up at Pittodrie in the 5-1 win over Aberdeen just before Celtic’s Scottish Cup Final defeat to the Pittodrie side.

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Hatate was clearly missed at Hampden and hopefully Brendan Rodgers’ assessment that the Celtic playmaker will be fit for pre-season training which is now just a few weeks away, proves to be an accurate time-frame.

Reo Hatate looks angry. Aberdeen 1-5 Celtic. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Some notable journalists reckon that Reo might fancy a move from Celtic this summer after joining Celtic on the January 2022 transfer window alongside Daizen Maeda and Matt O’Riley, who has subsequently been sold to Brighton for just over £25m having cost Celtic just £1.5m after meeting the player’s buy-out clause at League One side MK Dons. That’s like Celtic matching the biggest recorded win on top casino sites and it’s why the club is probably the best run in Britain, with around £100m in the bank.

Matt O’Riley of Celtic celebrates scoring our second goal with teammates during the Scottish Premiership match between theRangers and Celtic at Ibrox on April 07, 2024. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images) (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Like O’Riley both Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate have been sensational at Celtic, with Maeda recently winning every player of the year award going after a brilliant season for the Champions. Meanwhile Reo Hatate played over 50 games for Celtic last season, avoiding injury until coming off the bench at Pittodrie in a dead rubber match last month.

Reo Hatate walks down the tunnel after pulling his hamstring during the Celtic v Atletico Madrid, UEFA Champions League, Group E match at Celtic Park, on 25 October 2023. Photo Stuart Wallace Shutterstock

Hatate’s injury problems are probably the reason he is still at Celtic and it’s something that blighted his first season working under Brendan Rodgers, who talked about changing the Japan international’s training at Celtic and also away from Lennoxtown, in order to avoid repeated occurrences of hamstring issues. That seemed to work well but there’s no legislating for a wild tackle that robbed Hatate of an appearance at the cup final and possibly denied Celtic a treble.

Reo Hatate of Celtic scores to give Celtic a 1-0 lead. Celtic v Kilmarnock, Scottish Premiership, Celtic Park, 12 April 2025. IMAGO Photo Stuart Wallace/Shutterstock

Hatate is incredibly important to the current Celtic side and if he stays he will get another shot at Champions League football, although Celtic do have a qualifier to play at the end of August. That in itself is a big reason for Celtic to be very reluctant to let Hatate leave but as is always the case, if the money is right and the club’s valuation is met them away he will go. So what would that price be?

Callum McGregor of Celtic clashes with Nicolas Raskin of Rangers FC during the Cinch Scottish Premiership match between Celtic FC and theRangers at Celtic Park on April 08, 2023 (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Across the city theRangers supporters are well known for their sheer delusional takes on football related matters and one such example this summer is their recent valuation of current Ibrox golden boy Nicolas Raskin – their logic is simple, if Celtic can get £25million for Matt O’Riley they should get the same for Raskin.

Many of their fans do actually place the Belgian’s value in the £25million bracket, although it’s hard to imagine that an interested party like Premier League side Aston Villa might agree. Good luck in getting even half that fee for a player who only put in a decent showing in the second half of the campaign when the pressure was well and truly off and they were heading for a barren season. Their Scottish Cup campaign, lest we forget, ended at Ibrox when they lost to Queen’s Park for the first time in their history, dating all the way back to 2012.

Nicolas Raskin of theRangers chases Reo Hatate of Celtic. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

They have clearly placed the Belgian firmly on a pedestal and some even consider him as the best player in Scotland these days! A decent player at best, but encouraged by an even more deluded Scottish mainstream media they genuinely believe that Raskin is capable of becoming a world class player, and thanks to a couple of international appearances against lower ranked nations this delusion has spiralled ten fold.

Raskin like the rest of his team mates bottled it when the going got tough last season and naturally ended the season empty handed, yes like his teammates he is very much a serial loser. Raskin to date has one league cup winners medal for show for his time in Scotland and that in the deluded minds of the bears warrants a £25 million valuation.

Incidentally, why are they so keen to cash in on one of their better players? Surely it’s a new contract they should be demanding? After all they keep pointing out that their new owners are the richest in the land.

If an average player like Raskin is worth £25 million in the eyes of the bears, then it makes you wonder would the talented serial winner and overall better footballer Reo Hatate would fetch in the transfer market?

Lennon Miller in action against Celtic. Photo Vagelis Georgariou for The Celtic Star

Lennon Miller at Motherwell is being touted as a £10m player with Sunderland quoted, although Celtic too are interested, but probably not at that price.

Reasonable valuations would on these three midfielders would be around £7m for Lennon Miller, £10m for Nicolas Raskin and perhaps £18m for Reo Hatate. With the transfer window now open we’ll see what emerges. Remember it looks like theRangers and Motherwell want to sell this summer (Miller has only one year left on his contract so the Fir Park need to sell to maximise their price) but Celtic have a huge reason NOT to sell Reo Hatate.

That Champions League qualifier means that any club wishing to sign Reo Hatate might have to start talking about going over £20million to make it lucrative enough for Celtic to take the risk with the Champions League riches.