Former Celtic and West Ham United striker Albian Ajeti could leave Gazientep already with the Turkish Super Lig club’s head coach reportedly keen to sell the ill-fitting centre-forward.
That prolific spell at Basel is starting to look more and more like an exception rather than the rule as far as Albian Ajeti’s career is concerned. The Swiss international hit 21 goals for Basel in 2018/19, earning himself a move to West Ham as a result.
That he was sold to Celtic after just nine Premier League games speaks volumes about how things went for Ajeti at the London Stadium, and it’s fair to say happier times were not exactly around the corner at Parkhead either.
Albian Ajeti’s post-Celtic career not going to plan
Celtic recouped just £500,000 of their £5 million investment when the 26-year-old jetted out to Turkey on the final day of the summer transfer window in September. And, according to reports, Ajeti could soon be packing his bags again, after five rather miserable months at Gazientep.
Head coach Marius Sudumica, according to Gazientep Pusula, has told the club’s president that Ajeti no longer features in his plans. A January departure is, therefore, a very real possibility for a striker who has scored just once and featured on five occasions for his current (and maybe soon to be ‘past’) employers.
Ajeti endured an injury-hit loan spell in Austria with Sturm Graz in 2022/23. Those fitness problems have followed him to Turkey too, the 11-cap marksman playing a grand total of 118 minutes of football in the colours of Gazientep.
One goal in five games
“I had a wonderful, wonderful time (at Sturm Graz),” Ajeti told Laola1 recently. “I really enjoyed it, I met great people and was able to work with great people – from the coaching team to the employees, the board, to the teammates and fans.
“It was fun.
“The only thing that wasn’t as fun were the injuries I kept having. Unfortunately, I couldn’t avoid them.”
In time, he could be looking back on his time at Gazientep with a familiar pang of regret.
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