Yesterday we reported on Kris Ajer’s unhappiness surrounding Celtic’s handling of his transfer away from Celtic. The Norwegian international defender believes that he has an agreement with the Celtic Board that allows him to leave this summer, after initially agreeing to stay on last season to help with the ill-fated Ten-in-a-Row campaign.
Celtic have resisted approaches from bargain hunters Newcastle Utd as well as Norwich City and Bayer Leverkusen for Ajer with the figures reported to have been around the £12m mark. Shrewd shoppers Brentford, newly promoted to the Premier League, came in at around £15m but Celtic rejected that too, looking to maximise the value of the transfer to assist in the Ange Postecoglou rebuild – and that has clearly upset Ajer as we reported yesterday.
Photo: Andrew Milligan
Now the Norwegian Celtic fan writing on The Cynic has added his own informed tuppence worth to this, taking to social media yesterday evening to state: “Understand from sources close to Kristoffer Ajer that he is absolutely furious with the way Celtic management has dealt with his situation the last two months. He feels there’s been broken promises, constantly moving goalposts and a lack of professionalism from club.”
Yet Celtic are NOT saying that Ajer can’t leave this summer, they are simply trying to maximise the price that they can get for the player that they have developed over these last five years from a midfield prospect signed for £500k to an international central defender who will be worth considerably more to the club signing him as soon as he agrees his new contract.
Ajer could opt to sit out the season, as appears to be the Olivier Ntcham plan after he failed to get a free transfer at the end of June, with Celtic taking up the year option on his deal. Ajer could opt to do the same thing and that would be a costly move for Celtic reminiscent of the rejection of the £12m Fulham bid for Dedryck Boyata in August 2018.
Celtic holding out for the best possible price is not unusual in football, indeed just about every time Celtic are linked with a player the same thing happens to us. Think about the bid for Aaron Hickey at Bolonga recently and many more. Clubs rightly are seeking to maximise the selling price for their star assets, why should Celtic not be allowed to do likewise?
Ajer remains out of the picture, apparently with a knock that would miraculously disappear the moment that Celtic accept a bid for him. Ajer was promised a move in this window and Celtic certainly are planning in that happening. It’s maybe not going to happen as quickly as Ajer would like but his mud slinging is hardly likely to achieve much.
