---
title: "Celtic: Alex McLeish makes Ajeti, Barkas and Bolingoli claim"
canonical: "https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/mcleish-ajeti-barkas-bolingoli-celtic-claim/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Charlie Smith"
section: "Celtic News"
published: "2022-02-03T11:15:00Z"
modified: "2022-02-03T11:15:00Z"
---

# Celtic: Alex McLeish makes Ajeti, Barkas and Bolingoli claim

**Former Scotland manager Alex McLeish believes that Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou will make numerous outcasts train with the academy sides, as per [Football Insider](https://www.footballinsider247.com/celtic-news-albian-ajeti-could-be-forced-to-train-with-clubs-youngsters-amid-massive-claim-mcleish/).**

### The Lowdown: Derby demolition

The Hoops returned to the top of the Premiership on Wednesday night for the first time since [August](https://www.skysports.com/football/celtic-vs-rangers/445404) with a dominant win in the Old Firm derby.

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Celtic scored three times in the first half, two of which came from January arrival Reo Hatate, ending a [seven-game](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60135789) winless run against Rangers.

Three players who [didn’t feature](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60135789) at Celtic Park were Albian Ajeti, Vasilis Barkas and Boli Bolingoli, with the trio failing to seal moves away from the club in last month’s transfer window.

### The Latest: McLeish’s comments

McLeish, who contributes as a pundit for [BBC Radio 5 Live](https://icdb.tv/stats/1454/Alex-McLeish), was talking to [Football Insider](https://www.footballinsider247.com/celtic-news-albian-ajeti-could-be-forced-to-train-with-clubs-youngsters-amid-massive-claim-mcleish/) about the trio in a story released the morning after the derby win.

He expects all three to be demoted to Celtic’s academy sides due to the size of Postecoglou’s squad, saying:

\[freshpress-quiz id=”383272″\]

> “This is where, when you’ve got a massive squad, you have to separate a lot of the players, and I’m looking at the likes of Ajeti, Barkas and Bolingoli.
>
> “They will probably be, and I can only imagine because we did this back in my day at Rangers, under the supervision of other coaches.
>
> “Maybe one of the younger coaches learning his trade as well with the professionals who are not in the plans. He’ll join them in with the young players and stuff.
>
> “You know players of that ilk would want to go and play senior level (football). They don’t really relish playing with the young ones.
>
> “To be fair, most of them will give the young ones the respect while they’re training with them.
>
> “There’s no way you can train a squad with eight or nine you don’t consider as first or second choice.”

### The Verdict: Still time…

Even though the transfer window is now shut in Scotland, that doesn’t mean Ajeti, Barkas and Bolingoli are stuck with the Hoops until the summer.

That’s because [multiple countries](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/statistik/transferfenster) across the world can still complete their winter business in February, including Turkey, with the window closing in five days.

Both [Barkas](https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/celtic-transfer-news-vasilis-barkas-26041294) and [Bolingoli](https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-transfer-news/boli-bolingoli-line-celtic-transfer-24402853) have been linked with moves to Turkey over the past 12 months, so perhaps that could be a possibility over the coming days rather than McLeish’s prediction of them being banished to training with Celtic’s reserves.

***In other news – [20 duels won, 13 successful tackles, 77 completed passes: These were Celtic’s 3 best players v Rangers](https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/celtic-news/celtic-rangers-player-ratings-hatate-taylor-juranovic/)***