Paid £5m, now worth £500k: Celtic endured a total nightmare with “lazy” Lennon flop

Throughout his time in Scotland, the former Hoops center-forward was a complete failure at Parkhead.

Dermot Desmond, the primary owner of Celtic, and the rest of the board gave Northern Irish head coach Brendan Rodgers a lot of support during the summer transfer window.

Celtic signed a person this summer.
Despite their treble-winning campaign from the previous season, the Hoops welcomed nine new players to the group in an effort to strengthen the playing roster.

To improve the team over the long term, seven players were signed to permanent contracts; Luis Palma was the final addition in this group and cost an estimated £3.5 million.

Phillips has signed from Liverpool until January, and Bernardo has come on a season-long loan from Benfica, however the team does have the option to sign him when the season ends.

A handful of players are now surplus to needs as a result of Rodgers’ squad’s increased depth as there are now too many players ahead of them in the pecking order for them to have a chance to play meaningful minutes. Albian Ajeti is one of those who suffered as a result of that.

Why was Ajeti sold by Celtic?
One of the players that found himself in the aforementioned predicament is Ajeti, who the Hoops are apparently eager to offload before the Turkish transfer market shuts down on the 15th due to interest from Gaziantep.

Anthony Joseph, a journalist for Sky Sports, recently alleged that the Bhoys were “desperate” to profit from the Switzerland international.

The reporter also disclosed that the Hoops dud had already turned down two offers to leave Parkhead and was content to stay at the club on his reputed salary of £21k per week if the ideal opportunity did not present itself.

However, Ajeti’s transfer to Gaziantep was formally announced this week, and the Scottish giants have now failed to unload him from their pay sheet.

This summer, Joseph had said that the club would permit his departure for a fee of just £500k; however, it is not yet known how much the Turkish team paid to sign him.

What did Celtic spend on Ajeti?
You might understand fans’ expectations of a player when they sign for such a sizable sum of money, as Celtic reportedly paid £5 million to get the striker from West Ham United in 2020.

Despite the former Hammers striker’s underwhelming performance for the Premier League team, then-manager Neil Lennon called him a “tremendous” player.

Ajeti, who moved to England from Basel in 2019, suffered mightily in England and left West Ham after 12 competitive appearances with no goals to his name. This comprised nine appearances in the English top division with zero goals and zero assists.

Despite the fact that he lost a startling 91% of his physical encounters over the course of those nine Premier League games and averaged a poor Sofascore rating of 6.46, Celtic continued to pursue his services.

Ajeti scored how many goals for Celtic?
The attacker from Switzerland finished his time in Scotland with nine goals in 46 appearances, which indicates that he was not a prolific scorer during his three seasons with the Hoops.

Ajeti started just 10 Scottish Premiership games in his debut season, unable to establish himself in Lennon’s squad on a consistent basis.

The 26-year-old played in 20 league games throughout that season, scoring six goals and dishing out one assist to his teammates. Former Bhoys striker Frank McAvennie once called the player “lazy” for his lack of effort.

The former Premier League attacker’s lack of physical strength was a problem; he lost 65% of his duels and a staggering 74% of his aerial contests. This may have been a major factor in why he didn’t get many starts because Lennon couldn’t depend on him to keep opposing defenders busy.