Nadir Ciftci. Bye bye.
Back in the SPL, where he found his level, he has talked about still seeing a future at Celtic Park.
But let’s face it, there’s more chance of Steven Naismith winding up in the Hoops.
The big Turkish striker was one of Ronny’s gravest errors. It was the first moment where the Norwegian boss baffled us with a decision we simply could not understand. It was when the doubts set in. Whatever he saw in the guy, it was more than most of the supporters did.
I remember reading, incredulously, as another Celtic blog said he had been the manager’s first choice player. I couldn’t believe that. Ronny was a continental coach. Any time I watched Ciftci he looked one dimensional.
I wondered, at that point, if someone else was making the calls over the manager’s head. That signing was baffling.
Ciftci came to Celtic Park with virtually no pedigree except for a brief spell at Dundee United.
Celtic has also had quality footballers up front. We’ve always had a guy capable of scoring 30 goals in a campaign. Ciftci was nowhere near that quality, and there was no point where he looked as if he might be. It made no sense at all.
For all that, he came cheap. Whatever money we spent on him is lost to us, but we didn’t sink a fortune into a black hole. It was one of those things, a decision that someone at Celtic Park made which didn’t work out. And although we might wonder why the Hell that person ever thought it would, we’d probably all wish him well in his future.
But for all the greatness in our history, the tremendous players who scored goals in our Hooped shirt, there have been others in the forward positions who’s claims to fame are more grounded in infamy. We’ve signed some howlers over the years.
Here we’re going to take a look at some of them.
Brace yourselves.
This isn’t going to be pretty.