Martin O’Neill believes Reo Hatate could still have a part to play at Celtic this season – if he’s still at the club after the transfer window closes.The Japanese midfielder has become an increasingly peripheral figure at Parkhead and has been an unused substitute in each of the side’s three competitive matches at the start of this term.With Mika Baur’s arrival another obstacle to the 28-year-old getting his place back, Greek giants Panathinaikos are interested in offering Hatate an escape route.But O’Neill is adamant that he’s not yet drawn a line under Hatate’s time in Glasgow – and feels he could yet have a say in how this season goes.‘I think there are a number of tentative enquiries,’ he said.‘Nothing has come up that is beneficial to him or the football club. But that might change. Reo Hatate has become a peripheral figure at Celtic and has been linked with Panathinaikos ‘If it did not change, I would be happy. 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.‘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.‘Paulo (Bernardo) has gone on loan because he did not want to be sitting in the stand for games.‘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.’There doesn’t appear to be any way back for Michel-Ange Balikwisha, though, with the winger unseen since facing Auchinleck in January.On the £4.5million flop from Antwerp, O’Neill added: ‘Again there has been interest, nothing that Balikwisha will be wanting to do at this moment.‘I am hoping that at some stage or another if nothing materialises, he would get opportunities. Celtic boss Martin O’Neill says Hatate could still be an asset if he recaptures his best form‘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.’Meanwhile, O’Neill claims he has the same concerns about LASK as he did ahead of facing Swiss side Basel in a Champions League qualifier in 2002.Celtic defeated Ajax to reach the group stage for the first time in O’Neill’s first spell only to come a cropper against the Swiss a year later – drawing 3-3 on aggregate but going out on away goals.Ahead of Wednesday’s first leg in this season’s play-off round, he said: ‘I have experienced it. Ajax was a real high and then there was the real low of Basel.‘I saw Chris Sutton in the last minute (away) and to me it was in – but it wasn’t.‘They were a very fine side Basel, as they proved in the subsequent years, knocking Manchester United out and so on.‘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. Michel-Ange Balikwisha’s last appearance for Celtic was against Auchinleck in January ‘Of course, it’s good to have that firepower. 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.‘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.’