Albian Ajeti is reported to be a transfer target for Basel but only if they complete the transfer of Arthur Cabral to Fiorentina.
Celtic spent a fee reported at between £4-5m on the striker from West Ham in August 2020 but after a short scoring burst his form took a massive dip.
There have been a few glimmers of hope that he could recapture the form that brought West Ham to the table but the signings of Daizen Maeda and Giorgos Giakoumakis have pushed Ajeti, who is currently injured, further down the pecking order at Celtic.
With a contract running until May 2024 the player is in the driving seat over whether he stays put or takes a chance moving elsewhere.
The Sun reports:
The Swiss forward has never been a regular since signing for £5million under former boss Neil Lennon in 2020. And his old club Basel could now offer him an escape route as they look to replace Fiorentina-bound Arthur Cabral.
The Swiss outfit have drawn up a shortlist of targets and Ajeti features prominently. The Celtic hitman had the best spell of his career there — scoring 43 goals in 96 games.
That record earned him an £8m switch to West Ham in 2019, before he moved north 12 months later. Ajeti has scored nine goals in 48 appearances, but he slipped further down the pecking order after the arrival of Daizen Maeda.
Basel ace Cabral is expected to join Fiorentina as a replacement for Dusan Vlahovic. Ajeti, who started his career at his hometown club, is viewed as a potential replacement.
It will take some strong negotiating by Celtic to offload an out of form striker that hasn’t played for seven weeks due to injury.
Celtic will have to take a sizeable hit on the transfer fee but having signed three players from the J-League for around £5m the squad won’t be weakened by the exit of Ajeti.
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