Major Twist in Celtic’s transfer chase for Albian Ajeti

It had looked like Celtic’s chances of a move for Albian Ajeti were dead in the water but it looks like there is a twist in the tale.

As talks of Bayo being on the move to St Mirren or Toulouse progress, getting another goal scorer in becomes more urgent. Though goal scorer may be a touch over stating things for Bayo’s form at the hoops.

The unfavoured at West Ham Swiss forward Albian Ajeti signalled via his representatives over the weekend that he remains interested in becoming a Celt. There were strong rumours that he was on his way to Glasgow for a medical last week. Celtic had apparently agreed a season long loan plus option to buy with West Ham.

Instead he was reaching for his passport and plane tickets to get back to his Swiss home and then to holiday in Sardinia. Ajeti apparently stalling as he wanted to consider his options. Those options seemed to include the likes of West Bromwich Albion perhaps offering another chance in the English Premiership.

Glasgow Live report that Neil Lennon was in touch with Ajeti’s representatives over the weekend and that he got the message about Ajeti remaining interested. Neil was evidently putting his comments about strengthening the squad into action:

"“In terms of the playing pool we’d like to add two or three more if we can.“You can never have enough good strikers, and good defenders, and good midfield players and good goalkeepers, so we’re always looking to improve and add to what we already have which is an immense amount of talent.”"

It’s already known that Peterborough United’s Toney is another striker on the wish list, with an offer already in place. Apparently he is keen on a move too but Celtic will need to up their bid for that to progress further.

Here’s the thing though. It’s not at all unusual for Peter Lawwell and Celtic to play the game of low ball offers. They know their view of a players worth and how much they are prepared to pay. It’s rarely as much as the selling club want!

For Ajeti, if he is sunning himself on a Sardinian beach while his agent play offers and clubs against each other to secure the best deal, well that’s what they do too. They’d be poor agents if they didn’t.

Ajeti though needs to consider the football side of things too. By all accounts he’s had a difficult time at struggling West Ham and been either well out of form or well out of the team. West Brom as a promoted side back in the Premier League could be as difficult a place to impress as at the Hammers.

While there is plenty of pressure at Celtic, if he watched on Sunday he’d have seen a team creating plenty of chances up front with the chance to reform his previous Basel partnership with Elyounoussi. As long as the display on Sunday didn’t scare him off thinking he might not get in the team, then Celtic could be an excellent next step for his career to grow rather than fail.