Virgil van Dijk

I was asking your opinion in regards to our players. You said you don't have a high opinion of the Championship, which is fair enough, neither do I. However, you said you rate it higher than the SPL. Would you include our players in that? Do you rate top Championship players higher than our top players?

 

I still miss him too, mate. Him and his song. In another era (or even 10 years ago) he'd have stayed longer and become a real Celtic legend.

 

Yeah, but I doubt he'll end up at a big club down there. Probably he'll go to Southampton or Norwich.

 

This is gonna happen every season to us from now on. Players will start to notice that if you sign with Celtic and do well then your pretty much guaranteed a move to the Premiership the following season. Virgil will go, so will Forster. But at least we'll be making good profit each team one of these deals goes through. The board then only re-invest the minimum amount of this money required for us to qualify for the Champs League and win a league without the rangers in it i.e they will only invest what they have to and keep the rest. Its just something we're going to have to get used to Im afraid

 

It depends. Man Utd need a new centre half or two don't they. Man City need someone to pair up with Vincent Kompany maybe. Chelsea have some older defenders who will need replacing sometime. You could go right through the league, Spurs could be doing with a right good center half.

 

Ideally he stays at Celtic for one more shot at the Champions League then goes to Liverpool for 35 million - slightly cheap I know but obviously I don't want Liverpool ripped off any more. Think that would be good for all concerned parties.

I do think he'll stay this summer, Wanyama needed 2 seasons in Europe to show his quality and we were collectively poor in Europe this year. If we play better next season, hopefully come 3rd in the group, then VVD will have 100% proven himself and truly big clubs will be willing to go in for him.

 

He will end up moving to Hull or Sunderland or Crystla Palace....if he's very, very lucky, he might get a move to everton or spurs

 

We'll get about £17m/18m for him and he'll be off to Man United, Spurs, Everton or the likes. I personally think he's worth more than that, but not anywhere near £35m. I really hope he stays another season.

 

Everton don't spend that sort of cash tbh. It will end up being Spurs or something.

 

Yeah you're right.. I just meant that kind of level. I highly doubt he'll end up at a bottom half club in England.

 

A think he's certainly worth 18 million imo, but a doubt we'll get that much.

 

Obviously I would love Van Dijk to stay a lot more then just next season but from his and Celtic's standpoint I think jumping ship after just one season at Celtic to an epl club would be a mistake for him. From our standpoint keeping him next season makes sense as we are looking like we could be very strong next season with him anchoring our back line and how good Johansen, Biton and Griffiths are looking at the moment. Plus if we did sell him in the summer of 2015 we would easily still be able to get a big transfer fee for him. I would say in excess even of what we got for Wanyama. Plus from the players standpoint career wise making the jump again so quickly to another country and club is a very risky move. He is better off growing at Celtic from a career standpoint at this point I think. Again I would love him to stay long term well beyond just next season but certainly I think in the short term selling him this summer would be bad for both Celtic and for Van Dijk career wise IMHO.

 

He's not going anywhere

 

this,100% this. theres no way celtic will hold out to get 17 or 18 mill

 

Aye Pedro would have wet scants if we got offered £18m for VVD, packing his bags and personally escorting him to the airport. He would probably be worried that the slightest little thing would make him lose value.

In that situation I would hope NL would get a chance to buy a good few players.

Edit: Just saw that you said the club wouldn't hold out for that. I think if there were a few interested parties, then maybe. However if we got to £13m-£14m, it would be a done deal.

 

I have been thinking aswell, if we get £10m+ for players, especially if we start gettng £12m-£14m, then that really is fantastic.

Those sort of prices are far higher than comparable leagues, heck even for the Dutch Eredevisie, their record is something like £25m (years ago mind you) for Van Nistelrooy. So we really are doing well for players that, when all is considered, are untested week in week out and will go on to do more but aren't quite at their fullest potential.

 

True that.

 

Agree way Eire4 even if we got offered 15m for him at the end of the season a would really like to see us knock it back keep the big man for another season.

His quality isn't going anywhere, he's still very young, and Celtic aren't in desperate need for money? As long as he doesn't get a career ending injury next season, what ever we get offered this season we'll get offered at the end of next season. Maybe more with a good World Cup(if he goes) and another Champion League behind him.