CELTIC first team coach John Kennedy admits he understands Nadir Ciftci’s desire to quit the Hoops next month.
The Turkish international striker, bought by ex-boss Ronny Deila for £1.5million in the summer of 2015, has been linked with a loan deal at former club Dundee United.
The form of Moussa Dembele and Leigh Griffiths has restricted the frontman to just 30 minutes of action this season.
Ciftci has not featured for the first team since July, coming off the bench in both legs of the Champions League qualifier against Lincoln Red Imps.
Kennedy said: “I think from Nadir’s perspective, he’s obviously disappointed in the game-time he’s had, but we’ve had Leigh and Moussa fit most of the time.
“Ryan Christie can play in there at times, so we’ve got options there who are going well.
“Nadir has found himself on the sidelines and I certainly know Nadir and he’ll want to play football.
“He’s at the stage of his career where he’ll want to play, so I think it’ll be something Nadir will look to going and getting game-time somewhere.
“For the time being, we have other strikers playing in front of him and knowing the character Nadir is then he’ll want to get out and play on the pitch again.”
* BERTIE AULD has signed a limited number of copies of That Season in Paradise and these are available now at www.cqnbookstore.com – we’ll post straight away so plenty of time for Christmas.
