News that Nadir Ciftci is available to leave Celtic didn’t come as any surprise with the striker going through the whole of last season without scoring a goal.
Ciftci did score the first goal of the Brendan Rodgers regime in a pre-season draw with Celje but even with the manager’s powers of revival it was going to be a long long way back for the former Dundee United man.
A January loan move to Motherwell missed the deadline but a switch to Pogon Szczecin did little with the player returning injured to Celtic in April after starting just three matches.
With two years left on his contract the striker has a big decision to make- to go out and prove himself elsewhere or sit tight at Celtic knowing that he’s not going to pick up the same level of wages elsewhere.
It’s strange to think of the trust that was being placed in Ciftci two years ago when he joined Celtic from Dundee United.
John Guidetti and Stefan Scepovic had moved on with Ciftci brought in to provide competition and an alternative to Leigh Griffiths.
Ciftci’s signing was typical of those times but fortunately Moussa Dembele finally proved a successor to Gary Hooper with only the departure details needed for the Dutch/Turkish striker to sign off a brief and unspectacular Celtic career.