Most Underrated Celtic Players Since 2000

If you had to list 3 players who you think were the most underrated at Celtic this side of the millennium, who would you pick, and why?

Mine, in order, are:

1) Joos Valgaeren - at his peak ('01-'03), one of the best and most consistent CBs of his kind in Europe, and set an example for the great generation of central defenders that Belgium now has. He had a fearlessness about him that we could really do with now, and yet doesn't seem to get the credit that Mjallby and Balde almost universally commanded. His only poor performances for us were at full-back, imo.

2) Scott Brown - this is a difficult one, because at Hibs he was overrated. I seem to remember some pundit on the radio (can't remember who), when he was at Hibs, saying he'd pretty much be the next Schweinsteiger . However, the £4.5m price tag (which had little or nothing to do with him personally) seemed to hang round his neck like a millstone for his first couple of seasons with us - plus I think he took a bit of time to develop the discipline needed to fully mature into the roll of 'midfield marshall'. Now, however, he's probably our most important player when it comes to mental toughness, work rate, and a general winning attitude. Even with niggling injuries (which, again he can hardly help), Broony's worth every penny, imo.

3) Barry Robson - no world beater, but he had some delivery on him, and, again, had that kind of fearless and ruthless streak that you look for; always willing to shove his way past the opposition. He had his weaknesses, but I don't think he gets enough credit for his work rate and passion.

 

jackie mcnamara should never have been let go either

 

The next Schweinsteiger? * me, he's only a year younger! Hahaha, only kidding I do get your point.

For me -

Burley (despite now being a *.)
Hartley
Robson

 

I know mate - such a stupid observation. It was Clyde 1, mind you; we shouldn't expect any better.

Hartley's a really good shout, imo. Burley I would count as being pre-millennium in terms of his peak at the club. Some player, but a swine of a pundit now.

 

I think JVOH was underrated by a lot of people. I honestly thought he was superb for us, but I won't lie, I had the blinkers on when it come to the big man. Always defended him.

I think Stephen Pearson is another. Wasn't a great player, but always did well when he come on.

 

Giorgios Samaras
Mark Wilson
Aiden McGeady

 

That's my bad mate - not reading the * OP properly!!! Take Burley out, right enough.

Valgaeren would probably come in as well then......potentially followed closely by Wieghorst.

 

I agree with you, but I would get the crash helmet out if I were you.

 

Had it on when I wrote it

But I constantly readon here he was *, with no end product and basically done * all for us.

Which annoys me greatly

 

Either a goal or an assist every other game, which is far from * in anyone's books you would think. Will still never forgive him for twatting about against AFC with 1 minute left of injury time, when we drew 4-4 however.

However, obviously that is just one game - it just lives in memory as painful and entirely unnecessary!:smiley-laughing002:

 

Nearly crapped it when I saw that at first there.

 

Infuriates me as well mate. For a bit, he was the only player we had worth the admission fee.

I'm not as brave as you, I actually thought Ki was underrated as a footballer by large sections of our crowd. But I will need more than a crash helmet for that suggestion

 

Niall McGinn --Scoring for fun
David Marshall-- Now top class
Emilio Izaguirre..next year could be his.

:icon_mrgreen:

 

I'll back you up there, im fearless:smiley-laughing002:

 

I thought Ki's Celtic career went two ways; when he played for us; criminally underrated. After he left; criminally overrated.

 

I'll get torn to bits for this.

He certainly isn't more underrated than anyone already mentioned in the thread, but I felt Fortune was underrated and under-appreciated in a terrible Celtic team. If he had played in the current squad or even the good WGS days, he would have been a lot better off.

I'm not saying he was amazing, he just took a lot of stick during a hard time, as he was the one expected to score the goals he took most the blame.

 

Aye, I know what you are getting at. I personally always rated him highly. It annoys when folk talk about him not having any dig. We all know he wasn't up for the rough and tumble, but you can't have 11 players that are, but are not the best technically. With us moving to a 5 man midfield a lot this year, it would have been the perfect formation for a guy like him in our team in my opinion. A player like Brown/Wanyama or Ledley doing the dirty work, and allowing Ki to play and pick passes would have been interesting to see. Games like the one away in Lisbon was where we missed him badly I thought. We were crying out for someone to put their foot on the ball and spray a few passes that night. You could argue the game at home against Benfica we were the same actually.

 

I think Ki played as part of a 3 man central midfield at The Hunnery a few years back and played quite well

 

Are you thinking about the game when Forster got sent off and we drew 2-2. It was the Scottish Cup, Ledley, Brown, Ki & Kayal were all in the same midfield. I'm certain it was Commons who we took off to bring on Zaluska. So we played with 4 in midfield for most of the game. Ki was very good that day though. I thought he controlled the midfield.