Celtic‘s out of favour striker Nadir Ciftci is set to leave the Scottish giants early after his contract has been terminated a year early. The striker was signed by Ronny Deila after he had an impressive outing with Dundee United in the 2014-15 campaign where he scored 16 goals. However, ever since his move to Glasgow, the striker has failed to establish himself at Celtic Park.
The Turkish born forward spent the latter half of the last season on loan with Motherwell where he scored three times in 15 appearances. Ciftci was signed for £1.5m in 2015 and a lot was expected from him but the striker has failed to provide any sort of spark up front.
His last appearance for Celtic was in February 2017. He just made 26 appearances in his 3 years at the club and managed 4 goals. He has had loan spells with Turkish side Eskisehirspor, Polish team Pogon Szczecin, and English side Plymouth Argyle and finally Scottish outfit Motherwell last season.
Since Brendan Rodgers has taken over, he has featured just four times for Celtic and it was pretty clear that the striker doesn’t have a future at the club.
One cannot say that the Hoops have missed him as they have done exceedingly well in his absence over the last few years. They secured the ‘double treble’ under Brendan Rodgers and have a wealth of attacking options up front. The likes of Leigh Griffiths and Moussa Dembele have done well up front and one couldn’t see the 26-year-old having any chance to break into the team.
This will be Celtic’s second departure of the summer as they recently let go of Erik Sviatchenko to Danish club FC Midtjylland on a permanent basis and they might be looking to bring in more options in the transfer window. Brendan Rodgers will be aware of the fact that their rivals are going to come hard at them as the Hoops have been head and shoulders above everyone in the last two seasons in Scottish football.
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With the departure of Ciftci confirmed, we might see Rodgers move in for another striking option. Dembele has been constantly linked with a move away from the club and that might leave the club light on the striking options. It remains to be seen who Rodgers will go after but letting Ciftci leave early was certainly a good move from both the player as well as the club’s point of view.
