Last night a Celtic team full of attacking talent lit up Budapest in a wonderful display which earned the Hoops a vital away win against Hungarian champions Fenencvaros, leaving the group wide open with two games to go. All three Celtic forwards, Kyogo, Jota and Abada, got on the scoresheet carrying on their wonderful early season form.
With the game seemingly tied up manager Ange Postecoglou decided to give his Three Amigos a rest by taking them all off at the same time and replacing them with Giakoumakis, Johnston and Forrest. It showed the attacking prowess we currently have at the club, but there was one forward on our books that was nowhere to be seen last night, Swiss International Albian Ajeti.
Albian Ajeti wasn’t even in the squad for this match. Now there could be a viable reason behind this such as an injury picked up in training but the point here is that we don’t have any insight into this as no journalist thought it pertinent enough to even ask the Celtic manager the reason why. This shows just how far out of the first team picture Ajeti has fallen.
When the current season started Ajeti was heavily involved in the first team making 13 appearances under his new manager Postecoglou, scoring 3 goals. This even resulted in the striker being drafted back into the Switzerland squad which he had drifted out off previously.
Unfortunately though it seems like Ajeti was only getting game time at Celtic due to a raft of injuries picked up by the club’s other attackers with Kyogo, Giakoumakis, Forrest and Johnston all spending significant time on the sidelines. Since these players have returned Ajeti has pretty much disappeared completely to the point that many Celtic fans don’t even notice when he’s not included in the squad.
With speculation regarding Ange dipping back into the Japanese market that proved so fruitful when he picked up star man Kyogo Furuhashi in the summer things could look even worse for Ajeti in the future. At the moment it is hard to see any avenues available for the Swiss striker to break back into the first team reckoning from the wilderness he currently resides in. Only another unfortunate run of injuries would lead to him being recalled.
The problem I see with Ajeti is mainly that he isn’t an ‘Ange’ type player. Postecoglou likes his attackers to be fully involved in all aspects of the game, offering more than simply a goalscoring threat. You could clearly see last night how our current attackers buy into this with all 3 forwards tracking back regularly and getting involved in the defensive side of the game.
Even Greek striker Giorgios Giakoumakis, who like Ajeti is probably regarded more as a goalscorer than anything else, also offers something Ajeti can’t by being a good target man who can hold the ball up when needed. This was vital last night at the end of the game were Giakoumakis played that role brilliantly.
If Ange does bring in another forward during the January window I fear it really will be the end of the road for Ajeti. If it is I can’t imagine many Celtic fans being overly upset. He has had plenty of chances during the past year and a half and although chipping in with the odd goal here and there, he has never proved he is worthy of playing for a huge club like Celtic. At £4.5m he didn’t come cheap either so hopefully we can recoup some of that fee and hand it to Ange who has proved more than capable of spotting talented players.
Conall McGinty
