Jeremie Aliadiere comments on his ‘great escape’ at Celtic

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Jeremie Aliadiere failed to make a single Scottish Premiership appearance during a spell on loan at Celtic from Arsenal

Jeremie Aliadiere’s spell at Celtic is best left forgotten.

With the talented young striker struggling for opportunities at Arsenal behind a stellar front-line of Thierry Henry, Robin van Persie and Dennis Bergkamp so a season-long loan move to Celtic made perfect sense at the time.

But just two games and a matter of weeks later, Aliadiere was gone.

Celtic signed the Polish striker Maciej Zurawski from Wisla Krakow for £2 million, a player then Hoops manager Gordon Strachan described as ‘exceptional’ in quotes reported by the BBC.

As a result, Aliadiere tumbled down the pecking order almost immediately after arriving at Parkhead. And, speaking to Jim White on talkSPORT (30 October, 12.30pm), the now 35-year-old has admitted that he was disappointed about how things panned out at Celtic.

“Celtic came up and I thought ‘wow what an opportunity to sign for a big club.’ Then suddenly the club signed another striker, Zurawski, and from that day I became a sub,” said Aliadiere, who hasn’t played competitively since being released by Lorient in 2017.

“For sure, it was (a missed opportunity). I really hoped it was going to work out. I felt it got taken away from me at the time.”

Just weeks after signing for Celtic, Aliadiere was offered an escape route by West Ham United and promptly joined the London giants on loan once Strachan made it very clear that opportunities would be few and far between north of the border.

“Strachan said to me obviously we’ve bought this player (Zurawski) and because he’s part of the club and you’re only on loan then you can move. I called my agent, we managed to move to West Ham. I thought ‘wow, great escape’ cause I wasn’t going to play.”

Aliadiere never really established himself as a prolific goalscorer during the remainder of his time in England but is still remembered fondly for spells at the likes of Arsenal and Middlesbrough. Zurawski, meanwhile, won three league titles with Celtic and ended his debut season with 20 goals.