Ajer apparently turning down a new contract.
If we got a fee for £20m we have to consider it, now the problem is Liewell will probably hand himself a bonus of £4m out of it and we will do some dodgy deal with Dudu Dahan as his replacement.
I just think Ajer is not a great defender and vastly overrated. He’s regressed badly this season.
The best bit of summer business is them changing to Adidas.
Adidas, meh
The £25m fee Celtic got for Tierney last summer looks like better business with every new injury he picks up. He seems a very decent lad and I was hoping he would make a big impression at Arsenal but even when fit he looked a bit lost on the field, the 18 year old winger they ended up using at fullback has been far more comfortable.
Did Celtic play him too much , too young ??
Possibly. His shoulder injuries are probably very little to do with games though.
Hadn’t he a lot of hip trouble ??
A bit of that but some lads bodies are just not able for the demands of top level sport, he is getting all sorts of different injuries. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him back in Glasgow within a couple of seasons and playing in only the big games for Celtic.
Gone back alright
They signed Tierney knowing he needed a hernia operation. When he returned to fitness Emery spent a while easing him into the team in the autumn in the League Cup and Europa League. He subsequently played a few league games when the entire team was shite and Emery was on the way out, and then got injured again. He hasn’t been a success so far, but it’s overwhelmingly due to injuries in fairness to him.
I think it’s hard to get players to come to Scotland so I wouldn’t like to see him leave. Not like we need the cash. £20m would be a very good price in theory given his limitations but if Simunovic is the level of replacement we would get (as opposed to Jullien) then I’d much rather he stayed.
It’s all relative. If we reinvest the full £20m (as we should), happy days. If we don’t then and try and cheapskate, give Liewell a big fat bonus and replace him with a chump from Israel for £3m then it’s a different story.
But £20m on who? The pool of players willing to go and play in Scotland who command big transfer fees is very small.
I reckon if we scoured an obscure European market astutely and spent the Andre money on 5 replacements averaging £4m a signing. We’d find at least two at the level or above of Ajer.
We don’t need a bigger squad. Selling one player to buy five players on the hope that two are as good as the player you sold is an odd strategy.
Ajer is plenty good enough for what we’re looking for. I hope he improves but I’d prefer we had stability in our defence for European qualifiers (if they’re in the summer) for the first time in years.
But you are paying 5 lads instead of 1, and anyone going to Glasgow for £4m will be looking for similar money to what Ajer is on now.
I think Ajer has been quite poor this season. He’s made a lot of mistakes on a regular basis and they’ve been a range of different ones too. He’s made rash decisions, been caught out positionally, been outmuscled in physical exchanges and so on. He’s tall and lean but not very strong and blockier/stockier lads like Morelos and others have played up against him and given him lots of bother. He probably has a lot of upside and potential but I wouldn’t be pissed off if he moved on.
He has had plenty of errors but lots of good games too. I’d prefer to see him on the right side where his slide tackling with the wrong foot wouldn’t be such an issue though it’s frustrating it that he won’t just cut that out.
Jullien at the same age was playing second division football having “failed” in Germany. There is still lots of time for Ajer to improve physically and with his decision making, particularly given he is a recent convert to the position.
I’d be happy to get rid of Simunovic. I’d rather we didn’t sell any other defenders that we don’t need to on the hope we might get lucky with who we bring in as a replacement.
Apparently Ajer is itching to leave.
I don’t think he’s all that good to be honest, on the provision we reinvest the full whack of his proceeds back into the first team I’d be happy to let him leave for a sizable fee and use some of that to get a more reliable partner for big Jullien and a more reliable backup than Jozo.
Also it seems as if the Celtic youth system is being pillaged, another young prospect (Hepburn) close to Bayern, Man City courting another youth player and now Man Utd making advances for another one.
Thought Ajer would kick on and turn into a good player but think he’s been really poor when I saw him. Once taken out of middle he’s shocking…has no positional sense whatsoever.
Were there not rules brought in years ago to stop clubs pileaging other club’s youths or is it easily circumvented ?