As football fans we have been slightly conditioned to see any move from a Scottish club to an English one as a step up, but is that really the case?
Sure there might be more money on offer and you will get the chance to play against better sides, but does that do anything for a player if they are just getting thumped every week?
A report from Football Insider has looked at the Kristoffer Ajer situation, and it’s actually quite refreshing from a Celtic point of view.
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They allude to potential interest in Ajer from Newcastle United, while they also point to comments from the Norway manager where he’s urged the Celtic defender to move to a bigger league.
They spoke to Paul Robinson about the prospect of this move, and he’s made it pretty clear that it wouldn’t be a step up for Ajer:
“If you are playing for Celtic or Rangers you are playing at the top level. You are playing in Europe most weeks.
“Unless he moved to a top-half Premier League side I do not see where the manager would want him to go. He is certainly not going to go and play in the Norwegian league is he! It is an interesting time to be at Celtic.
“Yes, they have had a terrible season but a new manager is on the horizon. He will be given funds and it will be a big season next year to try and turn things around.
“International managers have opinions but I never had one of mine tell me which club I should play for. I cant’ believe that.
“I think we have seen that it does not matter what club you play for, if you play well, you get called up.”
It’s hard to disagree with that, and it also makes you wonder what he would actually get out of moving to a club like Newcastle.
He’s not going to be playing in Europe so that’s an immediate blow, he’s likely to be relegated at some point so that’s doing nothing for his development and the only ambition is to stay in the league so he’s not going to develop a winning mentality or actually challenge for any trophies.
Clearly this would be different if a big Champions League club comes in, but moving to a bottom five Premier League club isn’t really going to do much for him.
