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A Warning From History: Why The Grass Is Not Necessarily Greener Away From Celtic Park.

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Recently, there’s been a lot of talk about which Celtic player will move away from the club next.

It’s fairly standard stuff this, the kind of crap we’ve getting from the mainstream media for years. It’s that time of the year too; the transfer rumour time.

Today the rumours revolve around Odsonne Edouard, Callum McGregor and Kris Ajer.

All three would quite likely fetch large fees. Ntcham, Rogic and Forrest would too.

We will see Ryan Christie emerge as a major player in times to come as well.

As long as we have good players these stories will proliferate. Sometimes the players themselves will be seduced by the big money that was, until recently, on offer down south and elsewhere. This is the nature of the business now and we must understand that.

But the players themselves need to understand that money isn’t everything; indeed, almost every top footballer will retire with more money in the bank than the average citizen could ever hope to earn in a lifetime. We should not grudge them that, but we can mourn the rampant greed in a game where even mediocre players can earn mid-five figure sums every week for kicking a ball around.

Is money all that it’s about? I decided to look at the ten players who have left Celtic Park for the highest fees, and I’ve pondered whether or not they are better off for it.

Oh, I have no doubt that every single one of them is richer for it … but is that the same thing?

Who has made the right “footballing” choice?

You’d be surprised.

Kieran Tierney: Left For £25 million To Arsenal.

Has Kieran Tierney made the correct choice in moving to Arsenal?

He was the biggest sale in Celtic’s history and one of the most disappointing at the same time.

Most of us thought he’d definitely be at the club for ten in a row. His decision to leave was stunning.

Yet it shouldn’t have been.

Tierney would certainly have left the year before, for Everton, and had told Celtic he was willing to.

Brendan Rodgers convinced him to stay. But the player was clearly not as committed to the cause as he maintained, and the argument that he went to London for football reasons is scotched when you consider he’d have gone to Goodison.

Look, Kieran Tierney left for money.

Let’s be under no illusions about that.

As that’s the case, you do wonder if he’ll have any regrets.

Eventually, maybe, when he realises that he might have won his last major honour.

Rumours link him with a move to Leicester next; as well as Rodgers has done there in the short term that’s a job without long-term prospects, so it’s a club that Tierney would do well to think long and hard if he gets an offer to move to.

The Arsenal thing hasn’t gone terribly well.

If they sign another player for that position you’d have to say his chances of getting into the team will be limited.

That will not impact on his bank balance but it will definitely impact on his game time.

If footballers ultimately just want to play then he must be disappointed so far … he’s made eleven appearances in total and only five of them in the EPL.

Moussa Dembele: Left For £19 million To Lyon.

When Dembele left, I think most of us were pretty pissed off with him.

Most of us held him entirely accountable for that deplorable last day action. But after Rodgers departed as he did, I think a lot of us looked back again at what Moussa did in a different way; it’s clear that there was more going on than met the eye.

Dembele clearly didn’t believe the management team was intending to hang around, so why should he?

Although we’d have wanted the player to show the club a little more loyalty than that, he probably saw the Celtic situation as being an unstable one.

Nevertheless, it’s clear that he wanted to go back home and play football at a higher level than the SPL, and Lyon turned out to be a good club for him. We netted a small fortune from the move and he has done brilliantly at his new club … and this gives us a shot at getting another tidy sum when he makes his inevitable move to the EPL.

Dembele has played more than 80 games at Lyon and scored more than 40 goals; his record is excellent and he can say sincerely that he has no regrets about his move.

It’s also clear that he still loves Celtic, as is regularly evidenced on social media and in his willingness to appear on the club’s nine in a row celebration show.

He gets it, it seems to me.

I don’t do the whole hero worship of players who have left, but Moussa Dembele was always far too good to stay in Scotland and I knew from the night he scored twice at Parkhead against Manchester City that we wouldn’t keep him long.

His decision has been good from a footballing standpoint. He knew what he wanted to do in France, and he’s got his launching pad for a move to the top end of the Premier League … and he’s going to go there as a star player and first team footballer.

It’s worked out well for him.

He’s one of the few.

Victor Wanyama: Left For £12.5 Million To Southampton.

Wanyama is a strange one, because his initial move to Southampton paid off in spades when he used that club as a launch-pad to get to Spurs, which was the level I always thought he belonged at.

One of the best of the signings we’ve made in recent years, Victor Wanyama appeared to have everything the modern footballer needs to succeed.

His first season at Spurs appeared to have borne out all the hype.

He played more than 40 matches in that campaign, and looked to be a superb piece of business.

But over the next two years his game time got less, and by the start of the last campaign he was clearly on his way out of the club.

Rumours linked him with Celtic. I would have loved that.

But it was Brugge who agreed to buy him.

He was going to spend the best years of his career in Belgium.

The move broke down though. He has ended up in the MLS, which although it’s great to watch is not the kind of stage on which the guy who powered in a header against Barcelona on one of the biggest nights our club has ever had belongs.

Wanyama is only 28.

You have to hope that his best footballing years are still in front of him, but it’s difficult to see how he ends up again at the level he was headed for. A move back to Celtic Park looked on for a time this summer, and it would have been an outstanding piece of business for player and club both … Wanyama has not won a major honour since he left.

And he probably never will again. When he spoke to the press about the possibility of coming back to Parkhead he seemed regretful that it didn’t come off … I daresay that was honesty.

He knows that he should have stayed with us a while longer … and he’d have loved to come back.

Alas, that’s probably done and dusted now.

Virgil Van Dijk: Left For £11.5 Million To Southampton.

I am always disappointed when a major talent leaves our club and it’s pretty clear that he was a major talent.

He strolled through matches at this level and was never likely to be at Parkhead long.

It is actually almost heart-breaking when you see the paltry sum of money we got for him.

Yes, there was a sell-on clause and we netted another tidy sum, but still …

The real regret is that he didn’t blossom into the player he’s ended up whilst he was still at Celtic Park.

But he really did need that higher level to reach that higher level in his own game. Like with Dembele, the move from Celtic Park paid off big time not only in his performances but in the direction of travel for his career. He knew he was meant for bigger things.

I still expect him to step up yet. Liverpool is an outstanding club and he’s got a Champions League winners medal, but he can play anywhere and will probably end up in Spain, where he could play for either of their giant clubs.

He’s definitely succeeded.

Fraser Forster: Left For £10 Million To Southampton.

Well that move turned out well for all concerned, mostly because he ended up back at Celtic Park and might yet return for the next campaign.

What Big Fraser has discovered is that the grass is most definitely greenest in the East End of Glasgow.

I thought it was a terrible move for him, but I understand that he was lured south as much by the chance to play for England as he was for the cash. His returning to Glasgow would necessitate a huge wage cut, but all reports suggest he’d be willing to take it.

Big Forster was an outstanding signing for us.

I was hugely disappointed to see him go, but I was delighted by the fee we were able to attract. It was the second time we’d gotten an eight figure sum for a player we signed for a pittance – big Victor was first. I couldn’t quite believe we’d managed it, but we did and I thought we’d put the money to good use.

We never adequately replaced him though, and it showed when he came back.

He was outstanding in the last campaign, and I think he’d be an integral part of the ten in a row side if he returns to us for it.

He has more than earned the chance to be an icon.

So what went wrong for him down south?

Who knows?

He’s one of four players on this list who signed for Southampton; he is one of two who didn’t go onto another club for a larger fee. But he came home because he realised that Celtic is a bigger club than the one he left us for, and that we’re a bigger club than most of the options he had in England.

And that realisation will stand him good. It’s a game-changer for him.

Aiden McGeady: Left For Spartak Moscow For £9.5 Million.

When McGeady left for Spartak Moscow in 2010, we got a monster fee for him; near on £10 million at a time when that bought a lot more than it does now.

You could argue that adjusted for inflation that’s one of the highest fees we’ve ever received.

But what the Hell was he thinking heading out to Russia?

He had chances to go to England, and spurned all of them.

Money, yes, but it’s a strange country to go and play football in.

I actually always admired him for that. Because a lot of young players would have balked at heading to a place that far from home, and a new culture and language to adapt to.

Most British players have their comfort zone and never stray out of it; not Aiden.

So he gets credit for having the guts to go.

But Aiden’s career never, ever hit the heights like I always thought that it would having made a decision like that.

He’s spent the last couple of years bobbing around the lower leagues of England, where fans appreciate his awesome talent without ever really taking him to their hearts in the way that Celtic fans once did.

As a home grown player, he would have been welcome to stay at Parkhead for the whole of his career … but he chose something else.

Does he regret it? I’ve heard him get interviewed and say he does not … fair enough.

But he missed some glorious times here, and some incredible campaigns, so when he says it I’m not entirely sure that I believe him.

Especially not with where he’s ended up.

Stuart Armstrong: Left For £7 Million To Southampton.

The fourth player to leave for Southampton and the biggest flop of the lot of them.

I considered his decision to leave Celtic Park to be pretty shocking; he clearly went for the money, and I am sure he’s entirely satisfied that things have worked out as he’d planned. He was always thinking about his career after football anyway, and good luck to him.

But he can’t pretend – and never really tried to – that he left Celtic Park for “footballing reasons.”

The club he went to proves it; they were only ever seen as a stepping point to something bigger and better, and Van Dijk and Wanyama did it.

Even Forster has gone on to something greater in that he’s come home and played a role in the nine campaign.

He’s played lots of games for Southampton, that’s the thing; 57 of them in two years. But it’s a waste of his time down there, he’s never going to get a move to a bigger club based on his performances and that’s why rumours continue to swirl about him.

Tonight’s is a beauty; it has him heading to Ibrox for a season, because of the Ross Wilson connection. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so desperate. No-one could argue that the move would be other than disastrous for him, and I don’t think he’s stupid.

I think moving from Celtic Park was a colossal mistake from this guy, and I don’t believe he’ll ever find somewhere in football again where he has what Celtic gave him.

Other than Tierney he might be the most disappointing one of the lot, because he could have had it all right here at home, including, eventually, the captaincy of both club and country.

He chose England, and the money.

He won’t regret it, but he could have been a legend here.

Stillian Petrov. Left For £6.5 Million To Aston Villa.

A success. Without qualifications.

He never did win another major honour after leaving Celtic Park, but he got his move to England and played more than 200 times for Villa … so he definitely didn’t have many regrets, except about the leukaemia diagnosis which shocked us all and which he fought bravely back from although never again to play football.

Stan will always have a place in our hearts, but I remember being shocked at the time that he wanted to make the move.

I simply could not understand it at all.

The thing is – and this is the reason I’ve softened over the years – he gave us seven years, all of them good, and he played more than 300 times for our club. Think of some of the other players on this list, guys who have given us two seasons and couldn’t wait to get out the door.

Even players like Tierney, home-grown, developed by the club … he left after four.

Stan Petrov gave us the same number of years as Larsson.

If he got a little tired of the game up here and wanted to test himself against better players, you can’t blame him for it. He also signed a whopping new deal the year before the move, thus making sure we got good money for him … and at the time that was very good money indeed.

Stan did not go to a bigger club than Celtic, and no-one would argue otherwise.

He wanted something different, and more money too probably, but that he made a home and a life in Birmingham is equally clear. The support Villa gave him during his illness was exemplary, and he has rewarded the loyalty by joining their coaching staff, where he remains.

Not a runaway success, because he never won another trophy … but I daresay content enough.

Mark Viduka: Left For £6 Million To Leeds United.

A total waste. Of space. Of talent. Of time and money.

We made only a modest profit on this geezer and in spite of an enormous natural ability, most of us never mourned him for a minute.

He was a pain in the backside from almost the moment he signed.

He won four titles in his career, none of them at Celtic Park.

He gave us a solitary full season and took only a League Cup.

He famously chucked his boots in a bin at half-time during the Inverness debacle which cost John Barnes his job. He might as well have left them there. Before he’d even played once for us he had walked out on the club citing stress; he should have stuck to that and never bothered to show up for business at all.

He went to Leeds, who were relegated.

From there he went to Middlesbrough, saw out his contract there and then signed for the north east rivals at Newcastle on a free.

He was still there when they got relegated as well.

Viduka was a great footballer at times, but he loved himself a little too much and was never going to show anyone much loyalty.

Does he regret anything about his playing career or the manner of his Celtic exit?

I neither know nor care; of the players on this list he’s the one who gave us the least and was therefore not entirely missed.

I’ve never thought of his time at Celtic as other than an aberration.

That we made a profit on him at all is a minor miracle in spite of his talent.

Ki-Sung-Yeung: Left For £6 Million To Swansea.

A frustrating one, this, because I liked him a lot and thought he could have been a real Celtic icon.

In another Celtic team perhaps he would have been, but he has one league title to his name and it was at Celtic Park. He also has a Scottish Cup.

But when he left in 2012, I could not understand at all either why we were willing to let him go or why he wanted to play in Swansea, who were a Premier League side but never likely to let him add to his trophy haul.

Amazingly, he proved that wrong with a League Cup there … but there was never likely to be a title. At the end of that first season they let him on loan to Sunderland, where he reached another League Cup Final. It was downhill all the way.

Ki played solidly in the EPL for nearly a decade, but he could have been part of the great years at Celtic; he left just as the glory days were getting underway. He could have been at Parkhead for every single year of the nine; instead he was there for the first campaign only.

That must be a source of regret to him. When he was released by Newcastle in January this year there were reports that he might yet be on his way back to Celtic … it wasn’t to be. He signed for Mallorca, and there he was when the lockdown came down.

At 31 he’s not going to get the chance again.

He has won his one and only league title … and I am sure he will look back on that with enormous regret in years to come, especially when you consider where Celtic have gone since he left.

The Grass Isn’t Always Greener … And Most Of Them Know It.

Every one of these players has made more money by leaving Celtic and Scottish football behind, but for all that you cannot help but think that most of them have had mediocre careers at smaller clubs than Celtic and will end their careers woefully short on winner’s medals.

Too many players are attracted to English football for the money; how many of them could have won things had they made choices for football, rather than financial, reasons?

Only Van Dijk has been an unqualified success and genuinely gone on to bigger things.

Tierney might get there. Dembele almost certainly will.

But the success stories pretty much end there.

Some of these guys, like Petrov, have found new homes and played lots of games … others, like Viduka and McGeady, never got near the heights they’d have scaled as Celtic legends.

There are players at Celtic Park right now who have had tremendous success and will never know anything like it again in their lives.

There are others, like McGregor and Edouard, who have the ability to go anywhere and do anything who might well win trophies away from Celtic Park … but they’ll never again have that other thing, that status as icons.

It is probably not a coincidence that the two most successful of them – Van Dijk and Dembele – still talk about Celtic with enormous fondness. Forster returned on loan and looks like doing so again. Wanyama came close to coming home. Petrov is still highly regarded as a favourite son. McGeady and Tierney were youth players here and hold the club close.

All of them, on some level, realise what they had … and for all they gained, also what they lost.

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