Virgil van Dijk was a truly talented Celtic defender.
The Parkhead support could see almost immediately the quality the big Dutch defender had after Celtic signed him from FC Groningen.
Van Dijk was excellent on the ball, calm under pressure and strong in the tackle and his reading of the game made him a one-of-a-kind Celtic defender.
After two seasons at Celtic, van Dijk moved to Southampton becoming one of Celtic’s most expensive transfer sales ever.
Now at Liverpool, Neil Warnock has revealed the bizarre reason Crystal Palace didn’t sign the Dutch defender when he was manager of the club in 2014.
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Celtic hero Virgil van Dijk wasn’t ‘quick enough’ for Crystal Palace
Van Dijk got his big move to Liverpool off the back of his time at Southampton but it appears that Crystal Palace also had their eye on him at the time.
And the reason they refused to make an offer for the former Celtic defender will shock the Parkhead support.
Warnock told talkSPORT, “I wanted centre-half badly at Palace and we were told about one in Scotland and Ronny Jeepson went up to see him.
“He played for Celtic and he came back and said, ‘Yes gaffer, he’s a good lad him. If we get three or four million pounds, we can sign him.’
“So I told the chairman at the time and by that time all the clubs had started with this data thing and there were two or three lads on a computer looking at all the stats and everything and he came back the next day and said, ‘I’m sorry Neil, we don’t want to go ahead with that.’
“I asked him why and he said because they don’t think he’s quick enough. So I said, ‘He’s not quick enough? He don’t have to be quick in Scotland. He reads the game so good he can he can stroll it.’
“So we didn’t go after him and he ended at Southampton for three or four million and ended up playing for Liverpool and winning everything.”
What John Park said about Virgil van Dijk before Celtic move
Celtic got van Dijk from FC Groningen for around £2.5m back in 2013. The fee looks like a steal now but it seems John Park had a different view of the Dutchman when he was sent on a scouting mission.
Revealing Park’s comments, van Dijk’s former Celtic teammate Charlie Mulgrew told Open Goal, “Andy, do you know what it was about him, what his thing was? Because I remember John Park saying to me, ‘there’s just question marks over his attitude’, aye…
“So I don’t know what he was up to over there. He was really confident, but not to the point where you would say he was a d**k.”
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