One thing Celtic wanted this summer was a striker.
The Bhoys cast a wide net when looking for a new centre-forward being linked to the likes of Steven Fletcher and Saido Berahino, but in the end they settled on signing West Ham United’s Alban Ajeti.
Their new man has done very well so far, netting five goals this season and not placing a single shot off target yet this term, but we still can’t help but feel they’d have been better signing another of their targets this summer.
We’re talking about Ivan Toney.
The former Peterborough man was available for just £5 million this summer, and while Celtic showed an interest in him, for one reason or another, he ended up at Brentford instead.
Since joining the Bees, Toney has shown himself to be one of the best strikers in the Championship, netting 10 goals in 11 games, while Ajeti has only hit five for Celtic in a league that has often proven to be easier to find the net in.
This isn’t a knock on the Swiss forward, Ajeti will do a job for Celtic for years to come, and he’s already looking like an absolute snip at £4.5 million, but the bigger bargain was clearly Toney.
It was clear for all to see as well, Toney looked to be the real deal at Peterborough, winning the League One Golden Boot award, and it was clear to see that he was going to score goals wherever he ended up.
It’s still early days in the season, but you have to wonder if Celtic would be trailing Rangers so much in the SPFL title race if they had taken a punt on Toney rather than signing Ajeti this summer.
Unfortunately, it seems as though the Hoops made a transfer mistake on this one.
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