Neil Lennon says he feels “pride” at former players Victor Wanyama and Virgil Van Dijk making it to the Champions League final. The duo will face-off next month when Spurs and Liverpool clash in Madrid.
Lennon signed both players for the clubs and admits it’s nice to have helped them develop.
He told the Celtic YouTube channel: “I’m so happy for the two of them. You get a small tinge of pride because you’ve played a small part in their development.
“It should give our players here huge motivation to look at those two players who were teammates and playing in this environment.”
Destined for big things
It’s no real surprise to see either Wanyama or Van Dijk at such a level. Both were immense standouts for Celtic in their time at the club both domestically in Europe. They recouped the Hoops £25million from Southampton before moving on to bigger and better things.
There’s a reason that neither moved directly to their current clubs though. The top English sides have shown themselves reluctant to take the top players from Scotland without first seeing them play in the Premier League.
Former Celtic youngster Andy Robertson is another example. Liverpool would never have signed the Scotland captain from Dundee United. Instead they waited to see how he got on at Hull City before making their move.
For now, it seems like Celtic have a glass ceiling of around £20million that they can demand for a player. It would be interesting to see what would happen if the club ever got into the position where they were selling directly to a major club.
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