Celtic recorded their second win of the Premiership season on the road against Ross County. Late goals from Moritz Jenz and Liel Abada gave Ange Postecoglou’s side the three points to travel back down from the Highlands. While Ange Postecoglou confirmed that the Scottish Champions will look to strengthen in the next few weeks of the window.
Despite this, it is expected that there will be outgoings towards the end of the window. Central defender Christopher Jullien, midfielder James McCarthy, winger Mikey Johnston and striker Albian Ajeti appear to be contenders for the Celtic Park exit as the manager looks to finalise his squad by the end of the window.
Christopher Jullien
Christopher Jullien’s Celtic career looks to be over. The club sanctioned the player to travel to Germany to speak to Schalke before the deal collapsed but the fact that he wasn’t included in the The 29-year-old went public with his frustrations about his lack of game time last season but this appeared to backfire with many in the support seeing it as childish from the defender, given how tight the league was. The player has made 62 appearances for Celtic, scoring ten goals and picking up three pieces of silverware. Most memorably, he scored the winner at Hampden against Rangers as well as the win over Lazio. He will likely depart the club this summer with German and French clubs keen on the former £7m defender.
Albian Ajeti
The Swiss striker has gone off the radar at Celtic. At just 25 years old, Ajeti still has his best years ahead of him. Having signed from West Ham in the summer of 2020, Ajeti was tipped to rediscover his form from Basel. Although, in 48 appearances, he has scored just 9 times assisting five times in that period. There have not been many links in recent weeks relating to moves for the Swiss Internationalist. As a high-wage earner, the club will be keen to get Ajeti off the wage bill while he will want to play regular football.
James McCarthy
The 31-year-old completed a dream move to Celtic last summer but he has been a bit-part player. Sunderland, who were promoted to the Championship via the play-offs, have been linked with the player. Given his age the player will want regular football and given his likely wage packet, Celtic will want to move him on if he isnt in the manager’s plans. Aiden McGeady took the thoughts of McCarthy in an exchange as they bumped into each other whereby the Irish Internationalist stated that he wants to play. It will certainly be worth waiting to see whether McCarthy is at Celtic come the start of September.
Mikey Johnston
Ronny Deila’s Standard Liege have been linked with a move for the tricky winger. Johnston has an abundance of talent, he is a player that can capture the imagination of the support but he lacks consistency. Whether that is due to his ability to hold down a place on the pitch or not remains to be seen but it looks as if the manager wants to see how Johnston develops with a run of games under his belt. At just 23, Johnston has plenty of time as a footballer but limited time to prove that he is up to it at Celtic. This season will be make or break for him and it is important he can get a loan to prove his qualities from afar.
It will be an interesting few weeks to see who leaves the club and the status of their departure, whether loans or permanent. The manager has said that he would look for a couple more players before the window shuts, something that would certainly help given the Champions League group stages looming large.
The sooner those players leave the better, though we do need to bring in talented first team capable Scottish players, and still need another Right Midfielder, Winger and Centre Forward to solidify this squad…Forrest will need replacing soon too, which puts extra paramount on signing the best Scottish talent!