New signings always take time to settle, especially when you join a club the size of Celtic. But Jeremie Aliadiere decided to cut short his time at Parkhead after just TWO months.
The French striker became Gordon Strachan’s second Hoops signing in the summer of 2005 when he penned a season-long loan deal from Arsenal. Highly-rated by Arsene Wenger, the 22-year-old’s capture was met by huge excitement from the green-and-white faithful at the time as new boss Strachan set about rebuilding the ageing squad he inherited from the legendary Martin O’Neill.
However, Aliadiere’s time in Glasgow was to be short-lived as he decided to cut ties by walking out on the club during the same window he joined. Despite being blessed with blistering pace and an eye for goal, the frontman quickly found himself out of favour under Strachan and managed just two sub appearances for the club – playing in each leg of the embarrassing 5-4 aggregate defeat to Slovakian minnows Artmedia Bratislava in the Champions League.
It truly was a forgettable spell. But rather than stay and fight for his place, Aliadiere knew the ball was burst when versatile defender Adam Virgo was thrown on in front of him as a sub at Ibrox. Speaking days after quitting Celts to sign up at West Ham, he blasted Strachan for failing to give him a chance.
Aliadiere fizzed at the time: “My mind was made up against Rangers on Saturday. I’m upset I never got the chance to show why I signed. I was on the bench again and Adam Virgo was given a chance for the final few minutes. That’s when I thought, ‘The manager is just taking the p*** out of me.’ I’m now looking forward to life at West Ham and the chance to play first-team football.”
They say time is a healer, though, and with an older head on his shoulders, Aliadiere held his hands up in an interview last year by confessing he was wrong to point the finger at Strachan.
“I don’t think my lack of game time was Gordon Strachan’s fault in particular”, he admited. “At the time I took it as if it was his fault, because as a player you don’t see the bigger picture. You don’t know about decisions above the coach. I felt he was responsible at the time, but obviously now understanding the game more, I know it was not his decision.
“He liked me as a player, wanted me at the club, but unfortunately Celtic decided they wanted another striker on a permanent move. So Gordon had been told he’d have to play him ahead of me as I was only on loan. I took it as, ‘why did you want me in the first place?’ But it was not his decision. I was disappointed as I think I could have done well, it’s a fantastic club with great fans. But in the end it got cut short and wasn’t a great experience.”
After underwhelming loan stints at the Hammers and Wolves, Aliadiere gave up on his Arsenal dream in 2007 by joining Middlesbrough on a permanent basis. And as fate would have it, he’d be reunited with the man who he blamed for his disappointing spell in Scotland.
“We worked together again at Middlesbrough,” Aliadere said. “He came in and we had a great relationship there. I started and we got on well so it made me realise it was not personal, not his decision and was one of those things.”
Unfortunately for Aliadiere, he never really hit the heights that his early career promised. The former France youth star enjoyed the most prolific period of his career back in Ligue 1 with Lorient before spending his twilight years in Qatar with Umm Salal and Muaither. He returned to Lorient in 2016 but after failing to make an impact, decided to hang up his boots having made 299 professional appearances.