Celtic’s Unbanked Fortune Is Still Waiting For Us In Spite Of One Midweek Reversal.

The Scottish media, in midweek, all thought to add an odd postscript to their reports on the game between our national team and the Dutch, in which Scotland actually played reasonably well whilst being on the end of what would normally be termed a big beating.

There was a debutant in the Dutch side, and he didn’t have a particularly brilliant game.

Perhaps it’s because the system he was playing in is markedly different from that which he plays in domestically. Perhaps it was playing with unfamiliar footballers; it is always a risk when you go from club football to international football that you don’t know your team mates. Perhaps it’s just the natural nerves of playing for your country for the first time.

But Jeremie Frimpong has now gotten that first Dutch national cap. He has broken through. His excellent play over the last few years have elevated him to that level.

He will almost certainly be in the squad for the Euros and I think he’ll be great on that stage. And the reason I think that so many in the Scottish media thought to include a few Dutch media snarks was simple enough; they hope that Frimpong’s star is starting to fade.

They should be so lucky. The opposite is true. What the Dutch media reports actually show is their disappointment that he did not look like the player they watch in Germany, and who is one of the stars of his table-topping side. But it’s been one game. They know he has the quality. They are just upset that he didn’t produce that in his debut.

Nobody is writing him off. Nobody is suggesting he should never play for Holland again. They are saying that he has to step up to the level he’s capable of next time. There will be a next time. And plenty of next times after that.

Why does this matter, and what is the Scottish media’s interest in it? That’s easy enough to understand, of course. Jeremie Frimpong is our unbanked pot of gold. When he leaves the Germans, it will be to go to a European elite side. It’s not crazy to suggest that he might even follow his current club boss to Anfield if that’s where he does end up.

And when that day comes Celtic will bank a whopping sell-on fee. It’s a certainty. It’s as good as money in the bank, and especially as he’s now a Dutch international. If he plays in the Euros and stars for them – likely I think – his value will skyrocket further. Jeremie Frimpong, who has already netted Celtic a fortune, is going to net us another one.

Nothing The Daily Record writes on the back of a few lines in a Dutch sports newspaper is going to change that fact. Do they think highlighting it somehow makes it go viral, and that this will somehow filter back to the Dutch national coach and he’ll drop him and his value will plummet instead, followed by … followed by … followed by … until Leverkusen are cutting their losses and giving him away on a free? That’s not going to happen.

I find all this very amusing, and especially as it flows by various smaller rivers into another subject I want to talk about later today. But I was pleased to see Frimpong make his debut. You could see from his earliest game in a Celtic strip that he was a star. I hope to watch him tear teams to pieces during the summer, especially if one of those teams is England.

And then, when the tournament is done, I hope to see a big cheque winging its way to the Brendan Rodgers Transfer Fund.

The board is the only barrier to that, I think. Nothing else will get in its way.