Virgil van Dijk

He'll be playing in the Premiership next season though by the looks of it, won't he? Why would he be looking for a move when he's gained promotion and all set to play in the EPL already?

No, but it doesn't stop them moaning like * when we don't buy a £6 million striker, does it?

You say that as if the only reason any player would move to a mid-table EPL team is money, which blatantly isn't true at all, is it?

They're also playing in a league where the spotlight is very much on you from a worldwide point of view, playing to progress in cups, try to win European places, and it could be said that they'll be playing against some of the best teams on the planet in the likes of Manchester United & City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, and also some of the greatest players on the planet.

In Scotland at the moment you're winning a league title which is a laughing stock if we're honest, playing in a one-team league and hopefully getting six Champions League games (maybe eight if you're lucky) over a season.

Again, just because we have that type of money to spend doesn't mean that the players who are valued at that amount and who can do a job will want to come here, does it?

Most transfer windows a striker who is worth £6 million and who will hit the net regularly will be drawing attention from English sides.

Maybe I should have worded it better, it's not a case of could we find someone like that, but could we actually bring someone like that to the club?

I personally think that a strikeforce of Griffiths & Stokes, with Watt on the bench will score as many goals as we need, and all of those players are already on our books.

We should be looking at bringing in players before they hit the radar of the English sides and bring them up through the ranks.

Van Dijk, as I said, could become a European class player, but he simply hasn't done enough to prove it yet. He's had one season with us, and our defense was terrible in Europe, which is where he'll be gauged by everyone except us it appears.

 

I'd say part of that would be maybe playing for the Dutch under 21's. At such a young age, you'd have to consider the potential of having someone who plays both center back positions and right back, is 6ft 3 and can score goals. Being good in the air and being brought up in the Dutch way of football.

You simply can't say oh well he's only tested in Scotland, because he's also played in the top league in Holland.

If you want to judge it on the Scottish league form ok, lets do that. He's played almost every game, not been injured, and we've conceded what 15, 16 goals in the league all season and had roughly the same amount of clean sheets.

That's not gonna go unnoticed and even though we know the league is *, i don't see how any defender in the world could have done any better. Even if they were tried and tested at European level.

 

Christ, the way you've quoted is making me head hurt. I'll try my best though :icon_mrgreen:

When there was talk of unrest with McCormack the likes of Sunderland and Cardiff were reported to be interested, so yeah, I do believe if he had been transfer listed following his live phonecall on Sky in January that a few EPL sides would have been in for him.

Troy Deeney is currently being tracked by the likes of Spurs & Fulham apparently, and there was a fair bit of interest in him during January, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if he ends up moving in the summer.

He's widely considered to be the best striker outside the EPL, so he'll end up plying his trade in the top division sooner rather than later.

Look, regardless of what you think about the EPL, it's considered one of the top 3 leagues in Europe.

As I said earlier, it'll come down to personal reasons, but I'd certainly think the majority of players will choose the EPL in any form over Celtic.

That's no slur on us by the way, it's just the way it is. We play in a * league where there's only one team in it, and all we can really offer is limited Champions League involvement.

Playing in the EPL offers so much more than we can offer at present unfortunately.

The EPL is over-rated to a certain degree by English football pundits and fans, but it cannot be denied that it's a top class league and one of the best in Europe.

It depends if a player wants to challenge themselves and play on a stage that is watched by the rest of the world I guess. The best players in Europe aren't playing their football in Scotland.

Fighting it out? Seriously? There's no fighting it out for the SPFL title. We may lose the odd cup game here & there, but that's considered an upset.

Yeah, and playing in the Champions League for a team that's main aim is getting to the knock-out stages. There's always the risk that we get bumped out in the qualifying stage, isn't there? What then? A whole year of a top class players career down the toilet whilst they * about in the SPFL against the likes of Motherwell & St Mirren.

Getting back to the main topic, Van Dijk will be offski if a decent offer comes in from an EPL team I reckon.

Who wouldn't want to ply their trade in one of the best leagues in the world?

 

The English Premier League is by far the best League in the world bar none. That's not to say it's where the best football gets played, as entertainment value goes, it's where everyone wants to play. VVD didn't join Celtic to play in Scotland, he saw it as a stepping stone, where he could play regularly and get Champions' League experience.

He's just simply moved on faster than was expected and i think he's ready made for the English League. He's gonna be surrounded by top class players and that only helps doesn't it. So if he was at City playing next to Vincent Kompany, * man, that's gonna make life really tough, playing next to arguably one of the best center backs in the world, with Zabaleta and Kolarov either side and Joe Hart in goals.

I'd rate that as potentially being as good a defense as you'll find anywhere.

 

Why haven't McCormack and Deeney got their moves already. Gary Hooper was here no longer than they have been scoring goals in the Championship, yet he has made the move tothe EPL, but Deeney and McCormack continue to play in the Championship. If these players are more highly thought of than our top striker, you would have thought they would have been away to the land of milk and honey by now.

I know the EPL is a top league, not anywhere the level we are meant to think it is of course, but still a top league. That didn't answer my question though, I asked in your opinion, if we could offer the same wages as the likes of Aston Villa or Swansea, or any mid table team, do you think that players would go to these sort of teams over us?

The best players in Europe are also not plying their trade at mid table/relegation candidates in the EPL. That is the level of teams that we will likely be competing against if any English team is interested in the same transfer target as us.

Whether you like it or not, we are indeed fighting it out for doemstic honours. If we weren't we would still have a SC semi final to look forward to, and we would have just wrapped up the first trophy of a potential treble.

Of course Van Dijk will be away at some stage, I don't think anyone in the Celtic support would disagree with that, however, it's not out of the question to picture him going to a better team than Southampton. Which was the point I made.

 

You do know that if someone has a different opinion to you it doesn't make them a Rangers fan?

Maybe it's because I'm in my 40s and have actually grown up that I know this.

 

What people seem to be ignoring is Van Dijk was in the Dutch league team of the year at 21, the Dutch league and youth setup has always been a breeding ground for top class footballers. He's continued progressing here and he didn't look out of place in the Champions League. He has all the building blocks to be a top class footballer, he's quick, he's good on the ball, he's a good passer, he's good at reading the game, he's big and strong and is commanding in the air.

At 22 there is a lot of scope to improve further, he does come with a but of pedigree behind him.

 

One of the biggest myths that the EPL and its fanboys like to peddle out....

Although some clubs are breaking the trend for the most part the EPL's foreigners are have-beens, wannabes and never will bes.

How many of the best players in the World over the last 10 years pleyed in England during their PEAK?

Please don't even mention Henry or Bergkamp who only endeed up there after flopping on the contient.

 

I keep changing my mind on this but at the moment I can't see him leaving this summer unless we get offered silly money (£15m plus). He has 3 years left on his contract and we're almost certainly going to get a lot of money for Forster. We can afford to simply refuse to sell him.

He's a stick on to go summer 2015, right enough.

 

Only 8 goalkeepers have been transfered for more than £8 million in history. It is a position, which although one of the most important and definitely specialist, seldom attracts big transfers.

Forster has played in a un-competitive league, has represented his country just once and has had around 2-3 great performances in Europe.

He will be seen by most teams as someone with a bit of potential but not much beyond that. We will get, if he leaves, around £6 - £7.5m for him which for a goalkeeper is impressive but not the "big money" some think we'll get.

 

Because they are under contract? It's been widely reported that both players are attracting interest from EPL clubs, so I'm not sure what the issue is? It's not as if both players are banging in the goals yet attracting no interest?

It depends on who the player is really, doesn't it? If it's a Scottish player who wants to play at home for family reasons, a Celtic supporter and so on.

All things being equal, most players would want to play in a top class league against some of the top sides in Europe, wouldn't they? As I said, all it takes is a slip-up from us in the early season qualifiers and we are doomed to a season of * domestic football.

You think that "fighting it out" for the Scottish * cup is going to be appealing to anyone we're looking to sign? Seriously?

If Van Dijk moves on this summer and goes on to play for Holland and some top sides in Europe, where do you think he'll rank his SPFL title medal he'll get this season?

We simply aren't as attractive a club as we were in the past, with the growth of the english league and the decline of ours being the main reason for it.

 

But unfortunately it works. That's why we're losing players to it. Wanyama isn't going "I always wanted to play for Southampton" and Hooper isn't going "as a life long Norwich fan it's great to be here", it's "I always wanted to play in the Premier League". Yes, it's populated almost entirely by soulless nothing clubs, but the reality is it's where most players want to go. Call it delusion, call it whatever you want but it is the reality of the situation.

And there have been plenty of the world's best players over the last ten years at their peak. Ronaldo won a Ballon D'Or playing there, Aguero, Gerrard, Drogba, Vidic, Cech, Fabregas, Suarez, Rooney, there are probably more but all these players have excelled at the highest level, whilst playing in England.

 

Sorry to go off-topic but it emphatically is not populated almost entirely by "soulless nothing clubs"; about half the league consists of massive, historic clubs: Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Everton, Aston Villa (European Cup, large fanbase), Newcastle Utd (passionate fans) and Man City both get 50k every week. It is the league itself (so loved worldwide though it is) that is soulless and sapping the soul from its member clubs.

 

Chelsea?

 

Yes? Why not Chelsea?

 

I wouldn't consider them a club with a particularly worthwhile history, that's all. Same with City and Newcastle to be honest. Chelsea are the epitome of the Premier League's soulless foreign money dominated state.

 

Theyre all still soulless clubs now. They used to have passionate fans but no more, they have the sort of fans that will switch or just not turn up when things are going wrong.. Can't say Celtic is much different though.

 

It's nothing to do with their history being worthwhile though, is it? You claimed they were all soulless, nothing clubs, which blatantly isn't true.

As was said, the league itself can be described as soulless, but the clubs have history.

 

Both Victor Wanyama & Gary Hooper were also under contract, that didn't stop EPL teams putting in a concrete bid. You made the point that the Championship players were more sought after than ours, so I challenged that. If they were indeed highly thought of, why has no EPL team signed the two players for example. Two players who have been amongst the top scorers in the Championship for a few years now. It's not as if money will be a stumbling block.

You say about if we failed to make it past the qualifiers then the player has a season of "* domestic football" to look forward to. The same could be argued that what if the team the player goes to in Engalnd gets relegated. As we have established, it's more than likely that EPL teams interested in similar transfer targets to us, will more than likely be lower half teams. They could quite easily be playing in the Championship within a year, against the mighty Yeovil, Barnsley etc. That's not me having a go at these clubs by the way, but I wouldn't imagine many players dream of playing against these sides either.

I would like to think that there are players out there who would prefer to battle it out for trophies instead of battling it out to stay up yes.

Your point about Van Dijk is all ifs and buts. What if he were to go to the EPL, and get relegated, it could very well happen with Gary Hooper. Where do you think he would rank his time here if that were to happen?