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Following a difficult start to the campaign for Celtic, manager Brendan Rodgers brought Filip Benkovic to Celtic Park on a season-long loan deal from Leicester City – a club the centre-back had only joined from Dinamo Zagreb earlier this summer.
With the future of Dedryck Boyata looking to be in doubt before the closure of the transfer window last month, and with the likes of Jozo Simunovic, Jack Hendry and Kristoffer Ajer looking shaky in the club’s opening fixtures in the absence of the big Belgian, it was no surprise that Rodgers moved to strengthen his backline.
The Croatia U21 international arrived in the Premier League as a highly-rated youngster, and while first-team football looked unlikely for him at the King Power Stadium this term considering he had to compete with the likes of Harry Maguire, Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu for a place at the heart of the back four, he would have been hopeful of some regular minutes north of the border.
The tall centre-back was an unused substitute for the Old Firm derby win against Rangers last time out however, with Ajer, who was brought to Glasgow by former boss Ronny Deila in 2014, and Boyata lining up against Celtic’s fiercest rivals.
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While the former kept a clean sheet against Steven Gerrard’s side, a wobbly start to the campaign means it wouldn’t be a total surprise to see him drop out of the starting XI soon for Benkovic, who will be determined to make his mark in the Scottish Premiership and in the Europa League.
We asked Celtic fans to vote on our poll to see whether they would want Ajer to be dropped to give the Foxes loanee an opportunity, but 72% said they wouldn’t – as you can see from the results below.
