RONNY DEILA is being blamed for Nadir Ciftci’s disastrous spell at the club after his agent and former Celtic striker, Pierre Van Hooijdonk lifted the lid on Nadir’s time at the club.
Pierre believes when the frontman made the move from Dundee Utd to Celtic the manager at the time Deila tried to play him as a number 9 but he told Ronny that would see Ciftci fail.
“The start didn’t help Nadir,” Pierre told The Evening Times.
“He came to Celtic with a suspension. Then the coach, Ronny Deila, saw him as a No.9. When we spoke I said: ‘He’s not a No.9, he’s not a prolific goalscorer, but he can play No.9’.
“At that time you had Leigh Griffiths who was scoring for fun. Nadir can certainly score a goal and can create chances, but he is never going to be a prolific goalscorer.
“His best position is coming off the left. At United he did really well playing there. I tried to make that clear, but they said: ‘We’re going to make him a No.9’. I said: ‘I don’t think that’s going to work, I think his best position is on the left’.
Nadir only played 26 times for Celtic scoring just 4 goals.
He never looked up to the task in a Celtic jersey and it’s a bit unfair of Pierre to land that at Ronny Deila’s door.
The Celtic scouting team obviously thought they could get something out of him and recommended the club bring Nadir in.
However, it just did not work at all.
Celtic had Leigh Griffiths leading the line for the bhoys and doing well as Pierre mentioned.
The Turkish star was sent out on-loan several times during his Celtic career and was finally released in the summer of 2018.
The forward now plays for the Turkish side, Genclerbirligi and has scored 8 goals this season in 17 appearances.
We wish him all the best but Pierre drudging up a bit of old history and revising it to suit.
