He could have been the Moussa Dembele of 2005 but a month on loan at Celtic was enough for Jeremie Aliadiere.
“My ambition is to score a lot of goals and play in the Champions League,” he claimed on arrival at Celtic. “I knew straight away this would be the best opportunity for me.”
Coming in on loan from Arsenal it seemed that Gordon Strachan had uncovered a gem- a striker that would score for fun in Scotland.
Sadly for the 22-year-old his Champions League experience was restricted to two substitute appearances against Artmedia Bratislava alongside a couple of appearances in pre-season friendlies,
By the end of August the writing was on the wall when Gordon Strachan left Aliadiere on the bench at Ibrox and threw Adam Virgo on to try and retrieve the game.
Within days Aliadiere was gone, returning to London where West Ham took him on loan from Arsenal.
One start and six substitute appearances later and he was on his way to Wolves in January where he managed a miserable two goals in 12 appearances.
After a season back at Arsenal Middlesbrough paid £2m for the Frenchman where he enjoyed his best spell in England before injury struck.
As a free agent he trained with Middlesbrough before find his way back to France and Lorient where he has spent the last six seasons.
At the start of February, now aged 33, Aliadiere scored the only goal of the game as Lorient won 1-0 away to Lille but with 22 points from 27 matches Aliadiere’s side are sitting at the bottom of Ligue 1 and in need of goals from the former Celtic, Arsenal and West Ham striker.
