Virgil van Dijk

As good as Van Dijk is, I still think he's yet to give a proper account of himself in the Champions League. A good performance in the qualifiers, and hopefully the group stages, would improve the standard of club after his signature; and hopefully bump up any potential fee.

If he really has hinted that he's staying for another year (as suggested on the last page) then that's not only a huge boost for our qualification chances, but helps with our summer spending. I'm convinced that Denayer's leaving, so we're going to need to bring in at least one new CB this summer. If Van Dijk stays, that will be a massive help to the bedding in process of this new CB; and the money earmarked for his replacement could be invested in a new striker.

I honestly think, with the exception of Chelsea, Van Dijk would walk into most of those sides. Unfortunately, most of them probably wouldn't even consider doing business with an SPL side. Although in saying that, I wouldn't be surprised if Denayer puts in a good word for Van Dijk at City.

 

Wow, that's hard-on material right there!

 

I cant see why more teams are not swarming over Van Djik. He has all the attributes and qualities of a top center back and is a real ball playing defender and im sure teams have paid excessive amounts for worse defenders than he is. Id love to see Van Djik at Man Utd. He is still young and its a matter of time before he establishes himself in the Dutch national side. He just needs that opportunity and If he is given that whilst our player, then his value will only rise. The only down side is that id say he became too comfortable playing in the SPL week after week, and so was caught off guard by the quality and intensity of European level football. He will prove himself at this level and higher, especially when surrounded by stronger players than we have. Of that, I have no doubt. I genuinely see him ending up at Liverpool, Southampton or Man utd.

 

Him and Denayer are one of the best pairings I've saw in the hoops. Easily the best ball playing centre halfs.

 

So going by the under valued price the media's been knocking around, £8million is easily about a third of what's at stake in the Champions' League.

In a year's time Van Dijk is still worth a lot of money. January might be a better time to sell, but it will depend on the right bid and the timing of the bid/who we can get in on time.

Hopefully we can get a good draw and it makes life easier for ourselves.

 

I would rather just keep him for two seasons and let him leave for free. If his being in the team gets us into the group stages even once in that time than his 8m transfer fee has been earnt twice over. A player of his caliber is rare in the Hoops these days and having another two seasons of him would make us have that crown jewel in the side that makes watching Celtic that more enjoyable.

 

I was surprised we managed to keep him for this season. So I think he is definitely away in the summer.

It has to be for a minimum of £12mil though. Otherwise we're getting robbed!!

 

I would love to see us offer him a new deal on whatever our max wages are and thus if we keep him another season or 2 we can still sell him for a big fee if he wants to leave.

 

He wont sign another deal . Football is a short career and the guy has the ability to go and earn upwards of 70k a week in the Premiership. At 23 he will want to get earning the mega bucks sooner rather than later . He might be happy to stay one more season but it would amaze me if he committed to this club with a new 4 or 5 year deal.

 

He has had a few injuries but have got a couple of Southampton mates who don't rate him, they much prefer Schnerdelin.. Rare for him to play 90mins.

 

To be fair, preferring Schneiderlin to him is hardly an insult. He's arguably the best player outside the top 6.

 

Aye true he is quality.. They could just be noising be up as I was raving about Victor.

They also like to call us a feeder club for Saints, good chance Virgil will end up there I think with Koeman at the helm. May be good for him to have season there to get use to the EPL before a top for move.

 

* * a bita sense. This is exactly the kind of thinking that we need. No more flogging the team and risking the CL money

 

Wishful thinking though he'll be off and the quicker we all come to terms with it, the easier it will be.

 

So should we have knocked back the £12m bid for Wanyama and just let him run down his contract as well? It makes no business sense whatsoever. Knocking back huge offers, and keeping a player that doesn't want to be here is madness. One of the main reasons we are comfortable financially, is because we have sold players on for big profits. It's what we do with the money once we receive it I haven't been too happy with.

 

We've been used it to pay down our debts. We have a little more than 6 million left now. They are being very conservative but surely when the debt is paid down they can be a bit more aggressive in the transfer market? Ronny wants his full-size indoor pitch at Lennoxtown too I suppose

 

Makes you wonder why a team like Aberdeen didn't invest in January and chase our tails harder. If they added GMS and Armstrong instead of us, or players of that ilk...you never know.

Glad we're playing hardball with VVD, in any case. We've got to qualify next season!

 

Top Scottish players go for wages, not prestige; hence the likes of Russell playing at Derby, Jordan Rhodes at Blackburn, etc. If Aberdeen offered them more than us, they'd get them.

 

Well if we kept him his contract would be up this summer. If we would have qualified this summer then financially we would have been better off.

I am not against selling players for big money so that that money can be used to make the team better or so that we can increase the wages we can offer.

You are right about us not spending the money wisely opting for quantity rather than quality.

What makes no business sense it to reduce your chances of lucrative Champions League money. This is what we have done in the past in the infamous Karagandy year and also last year by not giving Lennon the funds that he wanted.

I have been advocating not selling VVD until our European fate is decided for a long time. I have even been shot down for it on several occasions. For reasons only known to the men who think selling players for big money is what our objective should be. I am glad that most people are coming around to my way of thinking on this issue. Direct quotes from Ronny paraphrasing it has been a big help.

Virgil is more valuable to us in the team because with him I reckon we have a far better chance of accessing this money. Selling him is just stupid and we deserve exactly what we get if he goes before or during these games.