Celtic have rejected a bid of £12m for defender Kristoffer Ajer, Norwegian outlet TV2 has reported.
It’s said that Brentford are the latest team to have a go at buying the centre-half, offering £12m plus £3m in add-ons.
However, Celtic are holding firm on a valuation of £20m.
All clubs interested in the player have now withdrawn from negotiations and at the moment everything indicates he will remain at the Bhoys this season, the report states.
It’s a fairly bold stance from Celtic. Surely raking in around £15m would be good business rather than letting him walk out of the door for nothing?
However, the Bhoys clearly don’t want to cheapen the valuations of their best talents, even with expiring contracts.
How Ajer receives the news remains to be seen. The Athletic reported last month he was unhappy with rejected offers from Norwich City and Bayer Leverkusen.
The Norwegian international has already made it clear publicly he wants to leave this summer. In fact, he’s on the record stating he’d have preferred to have left last year.
It’s not a great situation.
So far, he hasn’t featured in any pre-season matches but he was included in Ange Postecoglou’s Welsh training camp.
Really, I’d prefer to only have players at Celtic who want to feature and progress under Ange Postecoglou. We can’t have unhappy players in the camp for another season.
However, Ajer has always conducted himself professionally on the pitch, so there is hope he can perform to a high standard if he does end up staying at Celtic.
This stance from the club could also inform us on how they plan to handle Odsonne Edouard, Olivier Ntcham and Ryan Christie.
A situation to watch closely as we approach the transfer deadline.
In other news, Why Celtic display against Charlton offers hope for supporters.
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