Celtic have reportedly rejected a bid of £12m plus £3m add-ons for Kris Ajer from Premier League new-boys Brentford FC. The London side are the latest team to be listed as having an interest in Celtic’s 23-year-old defender. Ajer has one year remaining on his deal and it has looked highly unlikely that he will remain at the club for the next season but reports in Norway are saying that Celtic’s demands to potential suitors mean that the player might yet remain at Paradise.
Norwegian outlet TV2 are claiming that Celtic have set their transfer demands for Ajer at £20m. The report states that Norwich, Bayer Leverkusen and now Brentford have withdrawn from negotiations after Celtic made their price known to the interested parties. However, they may yet return with higher offers for the player.
Ajer has made it clear that he will believes that his career is elsewhere from Celtic. Ajer joined Celtic from IK Start in 2016 for £500,000 as a midfielder; however, Brendan Rodgers retrained the youngster as a central defender and he went out on loan to prove his worth. He has enjoyed great success in the time that he has had at the club, being a pivotal part of the Quadruple Treble, even scoring the goal that sealed it against Hearts. He should be moved on for the best possible price but that may be difficult to realise in one window, it may be a case of accepting a package that is below what we had hoped for but given COVID-19 and his contract situation, losing him for nothing would be galling.