Stephen Robinson discusses signing Celtic’s Nadir Ciftci permanently

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Stephen Robinson has confirmed that Motherwell would love to sign Celtic striker Nadir Ciftci on a permanent basis in the summer.

In comments reported by STV, Stephen Robinson has admitted that he would love to keep Nadir Ciftci on a permanent basis, but conceded that a deal for the Celtic striker is unlikely given his wages at Parkhead.

Ciftci has endured a fairly difficult time since being signed for £1.5 million in 2015 – fee reported by BBC Sport – making only 12 Scottish Premiership appearances for the Hoops and scoring the same number of league goals for the club as he has had subsequent loan spells.

Motherwell became the latest team to take a gamble on the 26-year-old in January, and it would appear that that risk has not paid off with Ciftci scoring just three goals in 15 appearances for the club in all competitions. But after ending his campaign with a brace against Hamilton – he is cup-tied for next week’s Scottish Cup final – Robinson insisted that he would like to keep Ciftci beyond this season.

“We can maybe look at it, but the financial gap with what we could pay him would maybe make that extremely difficult,” he said, as reported by STV.

“But he’s a boy I have so much time for and a lot of respect for. With Nadir’s quality, we were able to rest the two boys up front (Ryan Bowman and Curtis Main) who had little niggles.”

While Rodgers and Celtic cannot influence the wages that Ciftci asks for, it would certainly appear to make sense for the Hoops to consider making a move as appealing as possible for Motherwell with STV reporting that the striker has one year left on his deal at Parkhead.

They could even offer to cover some of his wages for the remaining year of his contract to try and ensure that they all but get the former Netherlands and Turkey youth international off their books.

It would certainly be a greater shock if Rodgers planned to consider him for next season given the depth the side already boast and how little Ciftci has done to prove himself during his time away from the club – with his brace on Saturday proving to be the undisputed highlight in that time.