Pundit Paul John Dykes has recently been talking about Kristoffer Ajer and his future at Celtic Park.
Dykes was hosting the latest episode of the ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ podcast and the panel discussed multiple issues involving the Bhoys. They also talked about multiple potential transfers for the Hoops and one player that they focused on was Ajer. Dykes said that he won’t be surprised if the defender leaves and he isn’t surprised at the stature of clubs that want the Norwegian.
Ajer has been linked with a move to Milan and Sky Italia has stated that Celtic value him at €15 million (£13.7 million). The likes of Leicester City, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain have also drawn links with the Norwegian defender.
Dykes was talking about Ajer and he believes that while he still needs to improve in certain areas, even Virgil van Dijk wasn’t exactly the finished article when he left Celtic for Southampton.
Can Ajer replicate Van Dijk?
Yes
No
The pundit said: “I’m not surprised at the stature of club [that] are interested in Ajer and I know that there are many out there who don’t rate him as highly as I do, but I do accept that there are areas in his game that he needs to improve on.
“I also believe that when Van Dijk left us, he wasn’t a finished article – but he needed that move to develop. Ajer, I would like to keep him. Could I see him moving? It wouldn’t surprise me.”
TIF Thoughts…
While Ajer has been linked with moves away from Parkhead, he has picked up a rating of 7.33 in the Premiership this season and because of that, he’s been Celtic’s seventh-best performer in the league so far. He has won the highest number of tackles per game for Celtic in the league this season, of those who have started a game, and has made the highest number of interceptions per game as well for the Hoops (as per Whoscored).
This shows how important Ajer is for Celtic and perhaps, clubs have noticed some of those abilities and that is why they want to sign the centre-back. If Celtic lose the 22-year-old this summer, they must earn as much as they can from his sale so that they can bring in a potential replacement for him.