THREE CHEERS: EX-CELT BACKS £5m AJETI

ALBIAN AJETI fired blanks in his 12 appearances for West Ham last season.

However, former Celtic and Switzerland defender Ramon Vega has told Neil Lennon his fellow-countryman will hit the target at the Hoops.

Twenty-three-year-old Ajeti was bought by Manuel Pellegrini for £8million from Basel last summer after claiming 37 goals in two seasons. However, incoming boss Davie Moyes was unimpressed and informed the frontman he had no future with the London club.

Vega is convinced former team-mate Lennon can capitalise on the £5million-rated player’s failure to spark with the Hammers.

The ex-international centre-back, speaking to the Daily Record, said: “If he gets to join Celtic, he’ll be a helluva lucky boy, I can tell you that, given the situation he is in at West Ham. He should be excited with the chance.

“Ajeti would go from not paying football to joining one of the biggest in the world where he can have an opportunity to be successful and be part of history.

“I know what it is like, I know what it gives you to be at Celtic.

“Neil’s first task would be to take Ajeti into the fold and give him back the confidence which he had at Basel.

“He didn’t play as much at West Ham, obviously. But Celtic must have had an eye on him previous to West Ham and saw him performing with Basle because he hardly ever played in London. Basically, he only trained for them and has had a year not playing regularly.

“To get the maximum out of him, they have to scrap his experience of West Ham and get the positivity back from his time at Basel.

“If you see Ajeti’s scoring record at that club, there are no doubts about him. He was part of a good team that played in the Champions League and also did well against the UK teams.

“Basel faced the likes of Manchester City and United and had good outcomes against them.”

Vega reckons the frontman has THREE massive positives going for him if he joins the Parkhead side in their interrupted quest for 10 successive titles.

He added: “Firstly, he’s moving to a huge club. Secondly, he’s going to play alongside some real quality players.
“The third thing is he is going to a successful team which has lots of confidence compared to West Ham where they are fighting against relegation and they were struggling and scrapping. It’s not the same ambience in a dressing room.

“Playing for Celtic in Scotland would be similar for Ajeti to playing for Basel in Switzerland.

“Not in terms of club size because, although Basel is a big club, they are not on the level of Celtic.

“But, from a competitive point of view, there would be similarities because Basel were one of those dominating teams in the country.

“Every small team they faced would go into the matches and be very tight and very defensive against them.

“There was not a lot of space for the strikers against packed defences and that would be something which he would encounter also at Celtic.

“Ajeti would be used to playing with back to the goal and it might suit him.”

Unless there are any unforeseen hitches, Celtic hope to parade Ajeti after completing the signing this afternoon.