Joe Hart's particular brand of Celtic leadership is proving as timely as his saves

That’s been a relatively consistent sentiment doing the rounds since Joe Hart’s arrival at Parkhead in the summer.

The influential 34-year-old former England international – former only in the sense that he hasn’t been picked, not that he’s retired from selection – joined in a deal from Tottenham Hotspur in July which divided opinion.

Hart had almost two separate careers before joining Celtic. On the one hand, there was the experienced goalkeeper who played a key role in the rise of Manchester City and was England number one for the best part of seven years.

On the other, there was the sort-of nomad who had not played regularly, or particularly well, for several seasons after leaving the Etihad. A gamble.

The risk-reward of that decision bore some resemblance to Celtic’s two previous bonafide number ones: Craig Gordon and Fraser Forster.

Both had experienced peaks prior to a spell with the Hoops – in Forster’s case it was while wearing them – but both had also gone through no shortage of tribulation before ultimately finding salvation in Glasgow’s east end.

Joe Hart watches as his touch knocks an AZ shot onto the post just five minutes into the sides' tie at Parkhead

Hoping that Hart experienced a similar career renaissance was, and our scouting report at the time suggested as much, quite a risky hat-trick to go for.

So far, it seems the club have found the net.

Small sample size though it may be, Hart has already emerged as an influential and effective presence behind a fluctuating back four. He has even donned the captain’s armband due to Callum McGregor’s injury.

“One of the reasons I brought him in is because he is a fantastic character and has a great experience,” Postecoglou said of the decision to give Hart the captaincy. “It’s handy to have him here at the moment because of course, with Callum missing, we’re missing an important part of our structure on and off the field but Joe will handle it well.”

Hart seems to ‘get it’ too. Upon signing his three-year deal it became widely reported that he had done so with a significant decrease in wage to what he was on at Tottenham. He made it clear from the start that he had come to a club of Celtic’s size and stature to play and embraced the weight of expectation that accompanies such a move with class.

“Delighted, honoured, proud, to name but a few of the feelings I felt tonight making my debut," he said after his first game, a 4-2 win over FK Jablonec. "It’s been a crazy few days but it’s all been worth it. Thank you for the welcome to your special club, I promise the rust will wear off soon and we can push on."

Indeed, after being trusted with McGregor’s armband for the first time a matter of weeks later – in a 4-3 defeat against Real Betis in the Europa League – Hart made a point of posting on social media what that honour meant to him.

“Very proud to captain this special club tonight,” he said. “Tough result but we will improve and keep moving forward together.”

On the pitch, Hart’s directives from between the sticks are clear for all to see but his defence can also trust him to make a save and keep his own end of the bargain if the opposition does break through.

He’s done that on numerous occasions already. In his short time at the club, he has already accumulated a longer list of memorable saves than any of the other three keepers on the books. All of those – Scott Bain, Vasilis Barkas and Conor Hazard – pre-date him by a considerable amount.

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His Parkhead European night debut included two saves with less than half an hour remaining against Jablonec which the crowd cheered with almost as much gusto as they would a goal.

Against AZ Alkmaar he touched a shot onto the post in the fifth minute to hold Celtic together during an early wobble before getting Carl Starfelt out of jail with another solid save 20 minutes later. Stops against Livingston and Real Betis came in defeats, yes, but still saw him add to his saves catalogue nonetheless.

These stops might not all be spectacular but some of them have been of greater import than the acts themselves. Ask any fan the key to being a successful Celtic keeper and the word ‘concentration’ will be in there somewhere. It’s easy to switch off when the ball is nowhere near you for long periods of the match after all.

Even on the occasions he has failed to keep the ball out – the second leg mistake against AZ sticks out – he has redeemed himself by not letting it undermine his performance. That night against the Dutch side, he went on to pull off two fantastic stops as Celtic qualified for the Europa League group stages.

Yet the main criticism of Hart’s game upon his arrival was his seeming inability to play out from the back as a ‘sweeper-keeper’. This perception can largely trace its roots back to Pep Guardiola’s decision to ostracise him from the City first team back in 2016.

So far – a couple of shaky moments and the one grave error against AZ aside – Hart has looked more comfortable than many expected with the ball at his feet.

He has to be. Postecoglou’s style and Celtic’s ball-dominant displays contrive to make it near-impossible to exist simply as a penalty-box goalkeeper at Parkhead. Even though he is still generally playing a little closer to goal than either Bain or Barkas were, Hart is nonetheless adjusting well to a more progressive system than he has been asked to play at any of his previous clubs.

In his Hoops tenure to date, Hart has received the ball over 25 times a game on average and passes it around 30 times. Only six of those is a long ball, suggesting he is at least ostensibly married to keeping Postecoglou’s passing game ticking over. His 89.2 per cent success rate is impressive, too, but it’s the urgency he brings to the whole show which is just as crucial.

A regular sight this season has been the ball going behind for a goal kick and Hart, already on his toes with anticipation, almost catching up to it at the byline such is his hurry to keep the “we don’t stop” mantra coursing through the team.

Indeed, StatsBomb data shows Hart has thus far this term been the most successful goalkeeper at passing under pressure (63 per cent) of all Premiership custodians who have played at least 300 minutes.

He has combined this with a save percentage of 82 per cent and a 'goals saved above average' mark of 0.7; essentially, he has conceded around a goal fewer than the shots he has faced suggest he should have. Not bad considering he’s only let in two and kept three clean sheets already.

It’s early days but what Hart is providing is leadership in his own way; a sense of stability and confidence that has simply been absent over the past season or so.

When considering a player of such experience, making comparisons with leaders of the past – ones who occupied a totally different position, no less – seems slightly reductive.

He’s not Celtic’s second Scott Brown. He's Celtic’s first Joe Hart.