Reports suggested that League One strugglers Plymouth were even willing to cancel Nadir Ciftci’s loan deal from Celtic.
If Nadir Ciftci had hoped a loan spell at Plymouth Argyle would help him restore his reputation after a disastrous move to Celtic, he will have been very much mistaken.
The Turkish striker has started six games with League One’s bottom side and has failed to score a single goal. Amid growing criticism from Plymouth supporters who understandably expected more from a player who joined Celtic from Dundee United for £1.5 million in 2015 (BBC), Ciftci has been dropped and hasn’t featured in the league in almost a month.
It came as little surprise, then, when the Plymouth Herald reported earlier in the week that The Pilgrims may even bring a premature end to Ciftci’s loan spell on the South Coast.
The report claimed that manager Derek Adams was running the rule over free-agent Welsh international Simon Church – and budget constraints meant Ciftci might have been sacrificed to compensate for the former Reading striker’s arrival.
Instead, however, Church is on the verge of joining Plymouth’s League One rivals Scunthorpe United.
All of this, then, leaves Ciftci in the limbo once again.
The striker endured a back injury and will be out for the weekend and possibly longer. When he returns, he may face a continued scrap to force his way back into Plymouth’s XI – and reports that he could have been moved on to make way for Church rather sum up just how far Ciftci has fallen.
As it stands, he is being loaned out by a club that don’t need him and frozen out by a club who expected more.
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