Newcastle United’s hopes of signing Kris Ajer are fading as the Magpies refuse to meet Celtic’s asking price. The 23-year-old has been linked with moves to Bayer Leverkusen, Norwich and Brentford but Newcastle were tipped as early favourites to seal the deal for the Norwegian Internationalist. According to The Northern Echo, Steve Bruce’s team are not confident of signing Ajer as Celtic stick by their price tag of £20m.
Celtic rebuffed a £12m & £3m in add-ons bid from Brentford but the Hoops are said to want at least £15m up-front for the central defender. Ajer has made it clear that he will believes that his career is elsewhere from Celtic.
Photo: Andrew Milligan
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.
Celtic are looking at signing Carl Starfelt and Brandon Soppy as defensive recruitments but it may hinge upon selling one of the prized assets.