Aliadiere relishing Celtic opportunity
New Celtic recruit Jeremie Aliadiere has vowed to show Arsene Wenger he is the man to join Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp on the list of Arsenal greats.
The 22-year-old has joined Celtic for a year to gain the experience Wenger believes he needs to make him a fixture in future Gunners sides.
And the Frenchman was keen to impress his manager by helping new Hoops boss Gordon Strachan make an instant impact as Martin O’Neill’s successor.
He said: “My ambition is to score a lot of goals and play in the Champions League.
“Arsenal is a big club with big players and I know it is hard to start every game.
“And that is why I came here – to get more of an opportunity to play and prove that I am ready to play at Arsenal, or anywhere.”
A number of other Premiership clubs had been keen to borrow him, as had some of the top teams back in France.
But he revealed: “I knew straight away this would be the best opportunity for me, to be at Celtic because it is a big club with big ambitions.
“To play in front of 60,000 people is really exciting and that was also a factor in choosing this club.”
Strachan insisted he would be delighted if Aliadiere went back to London having made himself a crowd favourite at Parkhead.
He said: “I would honestly love it if he got to that position. If the fans are screaming for him to stay and he has scored lots of goals I would love it.
“I’m not disappointed I have got him for just a year. It makes me happy because it is a bonus.
“It just was not possible to have him for longer. A lot of people in England would have liked him for a year so I can’t be too greedy.
“When I spoke to Arsene Wenger he told me, ‘He has got a future here, we just want him to prepare for that future with you.’
“At the moment probably the world’s top striker is keeping him out of the team and Bergkamp has been a genius for the last 10 years.
“So it has been hard for him.
“But we felt we needed to bring a certain type of player into the team, one with pace.
“I have known him for four years from when he played for the reserves against Southampton.
“Kolo Toure played on the same night and the two of them were absolutely magnificent.
“Since then I had kept an eye on him and although I wasn’t fortunate to take him on loan at Southampton it is great that Arsene has now trusted Celtic and myself to help bring him to the fore.
“He needs now to play first team games. He is at an age now where reserve team football is no good to him.
“He needs to find out how good he can be.”
