According to a report from Switzerland Celtic are paying Albian Ajeti just short of £37,000 per week. An annual total of £1.928m.
Football wages are regularly quoted in £x/ per week but are much more complex with loyalty payments for each year completed alongside various bonuses for goals, assists and appearances.
Celtic signed Ajeti from West Ham on 13 August 2020 on a four year contract. A year earlier he had left Basel for the bright lights and huge money on offer in the EPL, the transfer fee was reported to be around £10m.
Moving to Celtic a year later it is highly unlikely that Ajeti would agree to a pay cut despite his very limited playing time at West Ham.
With speculation that Odsonne Edouard could be sold and the Frenchman effectively the only trustworthy striker at the club the need to bring in competition or a successor was obvious. The fee reported at the time to West Ham was £5m.
Like almost all of the signings made by Peter Lawwell and Neil Lennon, with the exceptions of Greg Taylor and David Turnbull, Ajeti turned out to be disastrous. Up there with Boli Bolingoli, Vasilas Barkas, Patryk Klimala and Ismaila Soro.
Swiss website Blick is reporting that Basel are interested in signing Ajeti but there is a problem with wages, a big problem.
FCB is looking for a striker. Albian Ajeti (26) is looking for a club. The big problem: The despicable mammon.
No, Albian Ajeti no longer needs to worry about his financial future. When he switched from FCB to West Ham United for 12.5 million in the summer of 2019, there was a lucrative Premier League contract. And at Celtic Glasgow, his current club, the 26-year-old doesn’t have to be stingy. There is talk of around 1.2 million net per year.
Money that FCB obviously doesn’t have. Nevertheless, according to Blick information, the people of Basel are toying with the idea of bringing their prodigal son back to Joggeli. In 96 games for FCB, Ajeti has scored 43 goals and played 21 more. In 2018 he became the top scorer in the Super League.
1.2m euros currently converts to £1,038m. Using the Stafftax converter that comes back to £1.928m for the final year of his contract which will expire next June.
The striker hasn’t been spotted at Lennoxtown since he left to go on loan to Sturm Graz last August, his presence however is still felt significantly on the Celtic payroll, every single month.
