The Rumour Guy took the day off today, because there weren’t really many stories to write.
The one he could have chosen to focus on thought is about Kris Ajer. It indirectly feeds into the continuing story of Colley from Sampdoria, which refuses to die although the manager has stamped all over it and denied it completely.
The story of Ajer is going to stalk us all the way through this window. The club has offered him a new deal a couple of times now and my understanding is that there’s still one on the table. If he signed it all this talk would cease, as his commitment would be clear.
But he would have signed it before now if he was going to.
His former agent threw the first grenade here, and suggested that the player would leave in this window.
His new agent has allegedly asked Celtic for an acceptable figure that would allow him to go.
If we’ve given that number – £15 million according to reports – then we’re run out of patience with this yearlong charade and it’s almost at an end.
Kris Ajer is a decent enough footballer.
Reports suggest that he wants to play in midfield and that, as much as anything, is behind his desire to leave.
I would have liked to see him in that role, and I think he may have been outstanding there, but needs must.
As a defender, he’s not as good as he thinks he is and that’s a big problem for me and is the reason I feel a certain amount of ambivalence about the idea that he might be the big player to leave.
The idea that he’s a £15 million defender is so manifestly ridiculous that I would be delighted if we got that kind of money for him, just so long as Neil Lennon got a chunk of it to spend on a new defender before this window shut.
If we sell Ajer and then don’t buy a replacement, and not a project player either, that would be frankly scandalous.
But the Ajer saga has gone on a little bit too long and as we are reasonably sure he’s one of the guys Lennon was referring to in the aftermath of the Ferencvaros game, it’s past due that this matter was resolved once way or another.
Ajer should get one last chance to sign the deal that’s been sitting there since last season.
If he doesn’t want to do we should protect ourselves in the only way we can; clubs know what they need to offer, and if we get a bid of that size we should take it and move on.
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