Neil Lennon was blown away by Virgil van Dijk’s first training session after signing for Celtic – and predicted the defender was destined for huge things.
The giant centre-back was signed by the Hoops from Dutch club Groningen in the summer of 2013 for a bargain price of £2.3million.
Ex-Celtic manager Lennon, who is now in charge of Hibernian, knew right away that he had a rare talent on his hands.
“On the first day when we got him into training I said, ‘Look, enjoy yourself here, you’ll not be here long.’ He was that good,” Lennon said, as quoted by the Daily Record.
“I was impressed with Virgil’s fantastic temperament, his physique and his all-round qualities. He was a Rolls-Royce, capable of going through the gears when he wanted.
“Technically, he was unbelievable. When I saw him playing for Groningen he used to bring the ball out of defence and hit a pass 50 yards on a sixpence to their winger.
“He was attacking the ball in both boxes and I thought, ‘There must be English Premiership scouts watching this guy’. In the end, we got him for just over 2m euros. I couldn’t believe my luck.
OPINION
Liverpool fans will enjoy the anecdote of ace story teller Lennon, as it provides further evidence of Van Dijk’s star quality. The Holland international spent two years at Celtic before joining Southampton two years later and Lennon made it clear that he was baffled such an outstanding player was not snapped up by one of the world’s elite clubs until he joined Liverpool in January for £75million at the age of 26. Certainly, the giant centre-back has helped firm up a previously ropey defence in Jurgen Klopp’s swashbuckling side as well adding great technical quality, leadership and communication. It is certainly a mystery that would need the combined sleuth skills of Poirot and Miss Marple to solve that Van Dijk had spent four-and-a-half years in British football before he joined a Champions League-calibre club. However, Liverpool would point out they tried their best to sign him last summer but Southampton weren’t having any of it.
