Celtic's Jozo Simunovic handed a lifeline

Football FanCast

By Matt Dawson

Published Mar 13, 2020

Jozo Simunovic's contract expires in the summer.

Jozo Simunovic has been alienated from the Celtic squad of late, through no fault of his own.

The Croatian made a huge blunder for the opening goal in their defeat to Copenhagen a few weeks ago and since then he hasn’t been since in the green and white.

An injury has also played a part in that but after his catastrophic mistake in the Europa League, it seems hard to see how he’d get back into the squad.

After all, those who are currently among the backline are performing admirably. Nir Bitton has been the main beneficiary, earning vast amounts of praise from the fanbase.

With Simunovic’s contract expiring at the end of the season, he’s well and truly fighting for his future at Celtic Park.

Neil Lennon has previously claimed he’d love to keep him at the club – the 25-year-old has a one-year extension that can be triggered – but whether that happens could come down to a vast number of factors.

One of those factors is the form of the rest of Celtic’s defence and whether he gets a chance to play again between now and the end of the season. However, he may have just been handed a huge lifeline by one of his teammates.

This week, news broke that Kristoffer Ajer would be moving on in the summer. His agent revealed: “He will not extend his contract with Celtic and will leave this summer. There are several clubs who are interested, but I can’t go into their names. There are many who have followed him for a long period.”

Football Insider state the Hoops hierarchy offered him £25k-a-week but he wasn’t willing to accept. As a result, there will be a gaping hole to fill in the middle of Celtic’s backline.

Ajer has been a stalwart of the Hoops’ defence since arriving under Ronny Deila in 2016 and has played 129 times for the club. His presence, therefore, would be missed. Not only that, but Lennon would be down a centre-half when the 21-year-old ultimately walks out the door.

This is now the perfect opportunity for Simunovic to stake his claim and prove he deserves a new contract at Celtic. After all, losing two centre-backs this summer wouldn’t be ideal considering Lennon now operates with a three-man defence.