The status of Vasilis Barkas and Albian Ajeti at Celtic is unclear today after they both missed out on the match squad against Ferencvaros last night.
Tobi Oluwayemi was a surprise third-choice goalkeeper on the bench last night behind Scott Bain, with Barkas nowhere to be seen.
A couple of weeks ago, the Greek international was named as part of the match squad for the home match versus the Hungarians.
Ajeti has missed out on the last two Celtic benches against Ferencvaros and Livingston, having featured regularly before that.
The most likely explanation is an injury to one or both, but equally, the pair could have fallen out of Ange Postecoglou’s thinking.
The manager hasn’t been asked about the situation of either by the press for a while. There was no pre-match press conference today to clear it up after travel home from Hungary.
Giorgos Giakoumakis now looks like Postecoglou’s go-to alternative option to Kyogo in attack, leaving Ajeti very much on the periphery and facing an uncertain future at the club.
Barkas, meanwhile, has been decidedly replaced by Joe Hart. Even Scott Bain seems ahead of him in the pecking order, with the former Dundee man regularly in domestic match squads at his expense.
With the January transfer window now looming, it certainly appears that both players will be prime candidates to leave the club either on loan or permanently.
Celtic paid significant money for the duo during the Neil Lennon reign, but they simply haven’t worked out in the way anyone would have wanted. It might be the best time to cut our losses and move them on.
That would at least give Postecoglou more room on the wage bill, with any transfer fees potentially helping to bring in an extra player too.
In other news, Celtic youth coach lauds Lennoxtown teenager who has “taken giant leaps forward”; on Ange radar.
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