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The story
Japan international midfielder Reo Hatate (28) has completed a permanent transfer from Celtic to English Championship side Burnley on deadline day, September 1, signing a three-year contract. Hatate commented, “This is a great move for me.” On 5ch’s Geisports Sokuho+ board, users traded opinions on everything from how Hidemasa Morita and Daizen Maeda have followed a similar transfer path after Ao Tanaka blazed the trail, to the gap in league level between the Scottish Premiership and the English Championship, to where a club like Burnley really stands.
Soccer King
9/2
Burnley announced on September 1 that they have signed Japan international midfielder Reo Hatate from Celtic on a permanent transfer.
Source: soccer-king.jp / Original article here
What people said
Hatate, Morita, Maeda — they're all guys close to Ao Tanaka, and they're clearly heavily influenced by him, copying his transfer moves.
Morita even went so far as to switch to the same agent as Tanaka just to try to force through a move to Leeds.
Back when Maeda and Morita were trying to engineer a move to Leeds, they used to comment on Tanaka's Instagram all the time.
And it's pretty telling that they've barely posted there since the Leeds deal fell through.
They were probably putting on a 'we're best buds' show because they figured someone at Leeds would be watching lol
The English Championship ranks around 6th in the world, right up there with the big five leagues. Scotland's top flight, for reference, is somewhere around 39th.
That's why Furuhashi couldn't produce at all and barely scored a goal — even though he was running riot as top scorer in Scotland.
West Ham would've been better.
West Ham picked up several guys who shone for Leeds back in their Championship days, so they look set to get promoted.
If West Ham get back to the Premier League, they seem like they'd actually stay there. Burnley, even if they go up, look like they'll just come straight back down again.
Most of the guys who moved actually stepped up, didn't they?
Oh really? Glad to hear that's the general take then — I was picturing them landing somewhere better.
Everyone except Zion is a bit meh.
Instead, here he is moving to the Championship at 28. At this age, unless the club gets promoted back to the Premier League, he's probably going to finish his career having never played in a big-five league.
Five years ago, visa rules meant you couldn't go straight from Japan to England. Going via another country was the only way to eventually reach England.
Now the rules have changed so players can go directly from Japan, so today's young players are lucky.
Wasn't he a baseball player?
The gap in league level is just too big. Even when a Japanese player racks up goals like crazy and dominates, scouts barely show any interest.
Back when Hatate moved to Celtic, visa restrictions meant you couldn't go straight from Japan to England — you had to go via another country first to build up work permit points.
Now the rules have changed so you can go directly, so today's young players are lucky.
The Championship ranks above leagues like the Netherlands or Belgium, after all.
I'd say Scotland (mocking nickname: 'Suttoko') ranks below the J.League.
England's 2nd tier ranks 6th in the world, Scotland's top flight ranks around 39th, and the Dutch top flight ranks around 17th.
People say that a lot, but the ones who actually get transfers are the guys who shone in Belgium or the Netherlands.
It's just financially stronger — at the end of the day it's still a 2nd-tier league, so the level's a bit lacking. It's normal for almost the entire squad to get overhauled once a club gets promoted to the Premier League.
Hatate's rock 'n' roll.
Instead he got turned into a sacrificial guinea pig (人柱, playing off the same 'pillar' pun) for Scottish football 😢
Burnley have basically been a yo-yo club lately: 2021-22 Premier League (18th), 2022-23 Championship (1st), 2023-24 Premier League (19th), 2024-25 Championship (2nd), 2025-26 Premier League (19th).
I laughed out loud for real.
What is this lol
Who even said that about him
Burnley's Hatate video is hilarious lmaooooo
Birmingham
Burnley
Sounds like he picked Burnley out of these three. Personally I wanted him to go to West Ham, but maybe he avoided them because of Engels, who plays the same position?
At West Ham he'd be a guaranteed sub. Birmingham would've been the easiest place to nail down a starting spot, but they have no shot at promotion.
Background and Key Talking Points
The Scottish Premiership, where Reo Hatate had been playing, is generally ranked in the 30s worldwide and isn’t considered a high-level league. The English Championship, on the other hand, is said to rival the Dutch or Belgian top flights in financial power and attendance, putting it just below the “big five” leagues. Kyogo Furuhashi, who left Celtic for England before Hatate, failed to replicate his scoring touch in the Championship, and that precedent fueled a mix of worry and hope in the thread about Hatate “stepping up in class.”
It’s also a known fact that Hatate, Hidemasa Morita, and Daizen Maeda all switched agents around the same time in an attempt to follow the same path to the Premier League that Ao Tanaka had already taken. The ability to get a visa straight from Japan to England is a relatively recent rule change in the post-Brexit era; back when Hatate moved to Celtic, that direct route didn’t exist yet. Burnley have become known in recent years as a “yo-yo club,” bouncing between the Premier League and the Championship, and whether this move ends up being a stepping stone back toward the top flight for Hatate will depend on how much playing time he gets going forward.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “Reo Hatate makes a shock move to Championship side Burnley on deadline day! “This is a great move for me”… signs three-year deal.”
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