Virgil van Dijk

The problem is you have to take what players want into account. A lot of players come here because they see us as a stepping stone - refusing to sell would go against that.

 

It's a big part of us being attractive to targets but so is CL football, it's a difficult balance that we need to strike.

 

And, what if we had kept Wanyama, and still not qualified this year for the CL? Something that's not out of the question. Another thing that has to be remembered, is that Wanyama didn't want to be here. Is it beneficial to keep a player against their wishes? Is that good for the dressing room? All this has to be taken into account. It's all well and good saying just keep players, regardless of what we get offered, but it doesn't always make sense to do so.

 

No it does not but in this case Virgil is more important to us than cash in the bank. He is vital to how we play and to get a replacement in of equal quality we would have to be very shrewd or spend twice our biggest ever fee and even then that might not be enough.

In my opinion there is not a single player out there who could fill his shoes for the money we will be spending. He is better here for at least another season from our point of view. His replacement(s) should already be at the club before we can even think of letting him go. He is that important to how we play. If he has to leave on a bosman then so be it, this will give us another 2 years to plan for this scenario.

We should be signing defenders immediately when the window opens and if we must sell him this summer then it should be on deadline day and for 15 million at least possibly more.

 

If we must lose him I'd prefer he went to a proper club like Chelsea.

I think the man is crucial to any success we may have in Europe next season.

Spurs can * off.

 

Chelsea are not a proper club. In so many ways.

 

Your opinion, of course. I've always had a soft spot for them and I've been very close friends with many of their fans.

I also think they play on his calibre.

 

Forcing a player to stay is good for nobody.

Saying that, I'm hopeful Virgil can be convinced that staying another season & performing in Europe would be in his best interests too.

 

Our defence in europe this year was a * train crash...and with denayer going we could just as easily have a bad year this time round as well.
I doubt vvd staying will have much impact on where he signs.

 

Hopefully this is a windup

 

Been to a couple of Chelsea games pre-Abramovich. Certainly wasn't 40 odd thousand then. Nothing like today's version.

 

How did you get into Celtic again?

 

* Chelsea bunch of right wing bnp loyalist racist gloryhunting scumbags

 

I think that's why Jorge likes them. *, he does know Celtic's the one that plays in green, doesn't he?

 

See no problem with his comments. Has served Celtic well and if he wants to test himself in a better league, good luck to the guy.

 

Yeah I feel the same as I did with Wanyama. Sometimes you have to just hold your hands up and say he is too good for us and has served us well. Hope we get more than what we did for Vic though.

 

I only wish players would stop viewing our club as a * ladder up to the English Premiership.

I'm not sure Van Dijk joined with that aspiration. But Wanyama definitely did.

The only way we're ever going to get around that, though, is if we ever JOIN them.

 

Why? You would only want players to come to Celtic with no aspirations of going to a higher club afterwards?

Sorry to break it to you mate but that is the opposite of what our signing policy is, in fact Celtic actively sell the fact that we're a stepping stone to the BPL etc so it's no wonder players think that. I fail to see how it's a bad thing either and I don't know what gives so the idea that VVD had no intentions to go to England after us, he's already said he wants to do it!

 

Unless an offer of over 12M comes in he's going nowhere, simple maths, the CL purse would be bigger than any tranfer fee.