The sun is shining through the window of his apartment in Graz, Austria and it doesn’t take long in Albian Ajeti’s company to realise how much he is enjoying his football once again.

Yet there undoubtedly remains a devastation in him with how things worked out over the last two years with Celtic.

Initially, Ajeti arrived at Parkhead in the summer of 2020 from West Ham United in a hefty £4.5million transfer with the supposed intent of forming a partnership with Odsonne Edouard as Neil Lennon’s Hoops went all out in search of a historic 10 league titles in a row.

“I had offers to join different clubs on a loan deal or permanent deal but Neil and the rest of the board made me feel really wanted there and that’s why I decided to choose Celtic,” Ajeti said of his arrival.

It all started so well for the forward with five goals in his opening nine games but, after an eight-match run across October and November 2020 that yielded just one assist as Lennon switched away from a 3-5-2 to a 4-2-3-1, he fell out of contention somewhat.

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Despite often carrying a reputation to the contrary, Ajeti insists Lennon was a manager who was continually striving to keep his players as happy as possible at Parkhead even amid a high-pressure season in which the wheels ultimately came off and he was sacked.

“Lennon tried his best to keep everyone motivated,” Ajeti said. “But it’s hard to keep everyone in a big squad happy.

“As a manager, when you’re not getting results you will change the system and play a different starting line-up. He tried to keep me happy but we were not having a good time. Talking about bad results… it was a bad year for everyone.

“I think the formation change from 3-5-2 probably made a difference but this was the decision of the manager and there’s nothing I could do about it apart from to do my work.”

The arrival of Lennon’s successor, Ange Postecoglou, strangely began with Ajeti netting the first goal of the Australian’s tenure while wearing the captain’s armband.

Celtic Way:

That 3-1 pre-season win against Sheffield Wednesday was virtually as good as it got for the Swiss, though. A virtual spectator there on in, Ajeti gained a surprise opportunity back in the starting XI in September 2021 due to an injury to Kyogo Furuhashi.

To his credit, he scored three times in five appearances before a subpar showing in a 1-1 draw with Dundee United marked the beginning of the end for him under Postecoglou.

He made just one more start – against Real Betis in the Europa League where he came off injured after 27 minutes – before injury and enhanced squad competition meant his second half of the season was made up of just two bench appearances while his team-mates picked up the title as part of a domestic double.

After no appearances in pre-season this term, the 25-year-old joined Austrian Bundesliga side Sturm Graz on loan for the campaign in the hopes of rekindling his confidence in front of goal and rediscovering the form that once had FC Barcelona chasing his signature.

He currently has three goals - including a derby winner in the cup - in 737 minutes of action for Sturm as they try to chase down RB Salzburg at the top of the league. The Austrians hold an option to buy him at the end of his loan deal.

Back at Parkhead, Kyogo, Giorgos Giakoumakis and Daizen Maeda all remain ahead of him in the pecking order as it stands, making a return to the fold seem unlikely, but Ajeti remains fairly philosophical about his Celtic spell.

“I really, really enjoyed being at Celtic,” he said. “I enjoyed the culture, the life and everything around the club.

“It’s just unfortunate that it hasn’t worked out as I hoped for. I’m very sad things haven’t worked out the way we both wanted to but this is football.

“I’m really upset with the way things have gone over the last two years [but] I definitely don’t have any regrets, none at all. There’s nothing to regret, especially not signing for a club like Celtic.”