Bahrudin Atajic wants to convince Ronny Deila that he is worth a new Celtic contract.
The striker spent the second half of last season on loan to Shrewsbury but that deal didn’t seem to suit either party with the club relegated from League One and Atajic unable to get the run of first team games that he was looking for.
A stunning scoring run in the 2012/13 season, including a much watched You Tube strike at Hearts in the SFA Youth Cup, brought the Bosnian-Swede to the attention of Neil Lennon after it had looked like Atajic’s Celtic days were about to fizzle out.
The arrival of Deila has come with a promise that young players will be given a greater chance than ever before to impress.
“I have six months left on my contract and I don’t know if Celtic want to extend it,” Atajic told Swedish website Skanskan while on an extended visit back to Malmo, the city he grew up in.
“I will be back in Scotland on June 22 and we start training two days later. I want to impress the new coach rather than go out on loan again.
“Going to Shrewsbury was not a success, Neil Lennon knew someone at the club and it seemed like a good move at the time for me to go out on loan.
“They played with a target man and I’m not that type of player. I feel that if I had been given more of a chance to play things would have worked out better for the team and myself.
“Apart from Wolves, Leyton Orient and Wallsall all of the teams played direct football, it wasn’t good to watch.
“Now I’m looking forward to a fresh start with a new manager, Neil Lennon was good for me but now I have another chance.”
Deila’s first match in charge of Celtic will be a Champions League qualifier with Malmo and Stromsgodset among potential opponents.
Deila would rather avoid a return to Norway with Atajic having similar feelings about being drawn against the Swedish side that gave him his first chance in football.
“I enjoy coming home to Malmo but I hope that Celtic and Malmo can both qualify into the Champions League group stage,” he added.
“There are still a lot of people at Malmo that I grew up with and trained alongside. I was pleased that they won the league but I hope that they don’t get drawn against Celtic.”
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