Celtic pundit Stevie Mullen has been sharing his thoughts on a potential transfer move to Premier League club Leicester City for Hoops defender Kristoffer Ajer.
This comes after Mullen recently made an appearance on the A Celtic State Of Mind Podcast where he spoke about a range of topics concerning Neil Lennon’s side.
On the subject of Ajer, who has been linked with a move to Leicester in recent months, Mullen had this to say on this potential move, as he discussed whether it was likely Ajer could progress into a player who could become a success once he moves on from Celtic.
He said: “My own personal opinion is no, and I think if he was the player that we all hope he was, I think he would be at Leicester City by now, because Jonny Evans is getting on in years, he’s not the best ball-playing centre-half. [Caglar] Soyuncu, the other guy they’ve got, he’s good, but a wee bit of a bomb scare – so they’ve got a vacancy for a Kristoffer Ajer-type player because Brendan Rodgers insists in playing a way Kristoffer Ajer would suit. So I think if he was in the higher echelons of the game, I think Brendan Rodgers would be over him like a rash.”
Mullen was then asked if he thinks Ajer could perform to a high standard at that level for Leicester under former Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers, to which he gave this response.
He said: “I think he would be really, really struggling. I think he could do the attributes that he does for Celtic, I think he would be able to contribute that down south, but I think defensively, when you look at Harry Maguire being exposed the way he is at £85 million, I think Kristoffer Ajer would suffer the same fate in that situation.”
The 22-year-old, who is currently valued at £3.6 million, signed to Celtic back in 2016 from Norwegian club IK Start for a fee of £540k (per Transfermarkt).
Overall, the defender has made a total of 138 appearances for the Hoops in which he has managed to score six goals and provide four assists along the way.
Ajer made eight appearances for Celtic throughout their 2019/20 Europa League campaign in which he earned himself a respectable season rating of 6.77/10 for his performances in the competition (per WhoScored).
Do you think Ajer would be a good fit for the Premier League?
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TIF Thoughts…
It appears that Mullen doesn’t believe that Ajer has what it takes to be able to be a strong performer in the Premier League if he were to make the move to Leicester.
With the current transfer window set to close in October, it’ll be interesting to see if Leicester do try and sign Ajer before then.