Celtic captain Scott Brown has been talking up the quality of new man Albian Ajeti, but believes he still has some work to do to get to the fitness levels required at Parkhead.
Ajeti has started his Celtic career on fire. He’s managed four goals in five Premiership matches, despite most of his appearances so far coming from the bench.
The Swiss centre-forward came on as a sub four times over the course of August in short cameos as he looked to build-up his fitness levels after he arrived in Glasgow without a pre-season under his belt. However, he’s started two of Celtic’s last three matches, and is starting to slowly fire himself up the pecking order.
And it appears that Brown has been impressed too. Speaking about the new man, the captain was nothing but positive as he gave his own view on his current fitness condition.
As quoted by the Scottish Sun, Brown said: “Albian is a great finisher and he is really composed in front of goal.
“He is still getting up to the fitness levels at the club, but he had a long time off without playing. Having so many games is going to take its toll, but it will also benefit him in the long run.
“But we are getting goals from all different areas right now. That’s great for us because you can’t just rely on one person.”
Ajeti just about there
In two of the last three matches, Ajeti has managed to play for 62 and 79 minutes respectively. However far he has to go before he reaches his 100% level, he’s cleearly closing in on it.
The player himself also touched on it earlier this week. Talking about his own fitness, Ajeti said the following in the Herald after his goal against Livingston on Saturday: “I feel good and close to 100% now. I’ve still got work to do but I was happy to start today and the points were the most important thing.”
He’s a player who’s just about ready to hit his peak form, and considering the relentless schedule of games Celtic may have before the end of 2020, that’s massive for Neil Lennon and the club as a whole.
Normally after a signing as costly as Ajeti, the focus is always on the fee. However, such has been his fine goal return so far, that nobody has even brought up the fact he cost the club £5million from West Ham (Sky Sports).
If anything, it appears that Celtic managed to strike a bargain in bringing the Swiss international to Parkhead. Even at this early stage, he’s rapidly becoming the signing of the summer.
Hopefully in the next week or two, it’ll be confirmed that Ajeti is back to full fitness. When he is, goodness knows what kind of damage he’ll do up here in the long run.
In other news, we talk about why it’s essential that Celtic continue to succeed where Rangers failed last week.
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