Celtic decided to bring in Albian Ajeti last summer, believing they could get him back on track after a dismal season at West Ham United.
Ajeti has hit six goals and three assists in 19 league games for Celtic, but he hasn’t quite proved that he can be their long-term answer in attack.
Ajeti cost £5million, which is exactly what Brentford paid to sign Ivan Toney from Peterborough United – and their deal looks much better.
Toney has smashed 28 goals and nine assists in 38 league games for the Bees, and looks destined for the Premier League next season – whether or not Brentford go up.
The 25-year-old has completely dominated Championship defences, and Celtic fans may wish that they had signed Toney instead.
Right now, it looks like Toney will be out of Celtic’s reach for some time to come, making the fact that the Bhoys missed out last summer all the more painful.
The Scottish Sun claim that Toney actually made a secret visit to Parkhead and had agreed terms to join Celtic, but the deal fell through as the Bhoys couldn’t agree a fee with Brentford and ended up signing Ajeti instead.
Now, Toney has told FourFourTwo (07/04, p50) that he did hold talks with Celtic and a move was ‘close’, but a deal couldn’t be done.
“Yeah, that was close,” said Toney. “I spoke to a few people there and I spoke to the manager, but just couldn’t get a deal over the line. It would have been different, is all I’ll say,” he added when asked whether he would have fired Celtic to the title over Rangers.
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