Peter Grant and Stephen McGinn have weighed in on Sydney van Hooijdonk’s potential move to Celtic in January.
Grant played with Sydney’s father, Pierre, at Celtic for two years from 1995 until 1997, with McGinn adding an extra dimension to the discussion, having scouted van Hooijdonk while at Hibernian in a player-coach role in 2020.
After interest from the club, Celtic were previously told by Bologna that all bids would be rejected for the Dutch striker in the summer transfer window. Since then the situation between van Hooijdonk and Bologna appears to have changed with Corriere di Bologna [20/11 print edition, Sport page 3] reporting that Bologna manager Thiago Motta is open to van Hooijdonk going out on loan in January, with Celtic expressing interest in a potential move.
Peter Grant said: [The Go Radio Football Show], “If Sydney is anything like his father, you would take him, that’s for sure. I’ve not seen him live; I’ve seen clips of him, just highlights, and bits and bobs. Listen, the boy, I know he’s not went to Bologna and scored, but you’ll always find Italy is slightly different. A lot of their teams have older players, serious players who play at the top end of the pitch, guys with a lot of experience, from mid to late 30s.
“It’s difficult to say he’s only scored one goal. Then, I go back to that old argument: how many minutes has he had, how many times on the pitch has he gone on for five minutes?
“I’m sure Celtic have done their due diligence; I’m sure they’re out there saying he has great movement. If we play and create chances, especially talking about our wide players, can he finish them off? I think that’s the thing you look for in a striker. You don’t go on statistics when it comes to that; you come with the team he’s playing with. Do we create chances that he can finish? I always say a Celtic striker should score four out of six chances minimum.”
McGinn said: “He’s actually a name from the year I was at Hibs during the COVID season. It was a kind of split role I had with my relationship with Jack (Ross), who was doing the player coaching. He was one that came up in a recruitment meeting. There were all these names, Graeme Mathie at the time, and the video analysis. You’re going through all of them just by the surname, and as you watch, there was no doubt he’d scored a bundle of goals for NAC Breda.
“However, being unable to fly out to see him play, the outlay on it was quite significant. We had Kevin Nisbet who had just signed in the summer, and he was he was flying, so I think the circumstances, had it maybe been in a normal season, he’s someone we might have gone for. In hindsight, now that you see his success, you think, wish we’d just done it in 2020.”
Grant’s analysis of van Hooijdonk’s limited game time suggests that the Dutch striker has been unfortunate not to have consistent game time in Italy, despite scoring goals while in Holland.
Grant makes a good point that it is unfair to judge van Hooijdonk based on substitute appearances this season. Instead, he should be evaluated on his performances when consistently starting games for NAC Breda and Heerenveen.
McGinn’s revelation that Hibernian were previously interested in van Hooijdonk will come as a surprise to some but goes to show the talent the Dutch striker possesses. If not for COVID-19 and Nisbet’s form, van Hooijdonk could have become a Hibs striker, undoubtedly drawing Celtic’s attention to him.
It is clear that in January, several teams will be interested in a potential move for van Hooijdonk, and Celtic will likely face stiff competition. But with the pull factor of his father having played for the Hoops, Celtic are well placed to attract him to Glasgow if they truly want him.
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