I'm on a Celtic forum and I noticed a thread from here that someone had posted on it about Gary Hooper moving to Southampton. Needless to say, the reaction of the Talkceltic members wasn't great. To be honest, I feel some of the opinions on here are very unfair and I'd like to put across my argument that Celtic are very underrated as a team and as a prospect to players.
Firstly, besides the fact that the guy who made the thread seemed to be set on listing all the cons of Celtic and all the pros of Southampton, an interesting point that didn't really come up was who were the better team. Southampton are top of the Championship now but I feel that their team is far inferior to that of Celtic, as someone who has watched a lot of both this season. Southampton have a Celtic reject, Jos Hooiveld, who only played a handful of games for us over the last 2 years before we loaned him to them, where he has started every match. Danny Fox is another who didn't make the grade at Celtic and yet now starts for Southampton, the top team in the Championship. A combined XI would be, in my opinion:
Forster (Celtic)
Matthews (Celtic) Majstorovic (Celtic) Mulgrew(Celtic) Izaguirre (Celtic)
Forrest (Celtic) Kayal (Celtic) Ledley (Celtic) Lallana (Southampton)
Hooper (Celtic) Lambert (Southapton)
In my honest opinion, that is the best overall team. Even to put Lallana in is generous, considering I am leaving out established international midfielders in Ki (Korean Footballer of the Year 2011 ahead of the likes of Park and Lee), Commons (top scorer in the Championship when we bought him in January last year), Brown and Wanyama.
Also, the consensus that most people would rather play for Southampton is at odds with the patterns of footballers in recent years. Ledley left Cardiff to join us, rejecting Stoke, as did Matthews. Commons left Derby for us. Hooper rejected a contract offer from an unnamed premiership club to join us last season. Wanyama rejected Villa. Lustig rejected Fulham. The list goes on. Choosing a premiership club over Celtic is a hard decision for most players, and in all honesty choosing a Championship club is hugely unlikely.
All this is academic because Hooper will not be going to Southampton, unless they can afford at the very least 8-9 million pounds. Which they can't. But for a team that beat Rennes in Europe this year and drew twice with Udinese (top of Serie A at the time, and it was their first team by the way, certainly in their home leg), I feel that Celtic have not been getting the respect they deserve.
Sorry for the rant.
Firstly, besides the fact that the guy who made the thread seemed to be set on listing all the cons of Celtic and all the pros of Southampton, an interesting point that didn't really come up was who were the better team. Southampton are top of the Championship now but I feel that their team is far inferior to that of Celtic, as someone who has watched a lot of both this season. Southampton have a Celtic reject, Jos Hooiveld, who only played a handful of games for us over the last 2 years before we loaned him to them, where he has started every match. Danny Fox is another who didn't make the grade at Celtic and yet now starts for Southampton, the top team in the Championship. A combined XI would be, in my opinion:
Forster (Celtic)
Matthews (Celtic) Majstorovic (Celtic) Mulgrew(Celtic) Izaguirre (Celtic)
Forrest (Celtic) Kayal (Celtic) Ledley (Celtic) Lallana (Southampton)
Hooper (Celtic) Lambert (Southapton)
In my honest opinion, that is the best overall team. Even to put Lallana in is generous, considering I am leaving out established international midfielders in Ki (Korean Footballer of the Year 2011 ahead of the likes of Park and Lee), Commons (top scorer in the Championship when we bought him in January last year), Brown and Wanyama.
Also, the consensus that most people would rather play for Southampton is at odds with the patterns of footballers in recent years. Ledley left Cardiff to join us, rejecting Stoke, as did Matthews. Commons left Derby for us. Hooper rejected a contract offer from an unnamed premiership club to join us last season. Wanyama rejected Villa. Lustig rejected Fulham. The list goes on. Choosing a premiership club over Celtic is a hard decision for most players, and in all honesty choosing a Championship club is hugely unlikely.
All this is academic because Hooper will not be going to Southampton, unless they can afford at the very least 8-9 million pounds. Which they can't. But for a team that beat Rennes in Europe this year and drew twice with Udinese (top of Serie A at the time, and it was their first team by the way, certainly in their home leg), I feel that Celtic have not been getting the respect they deserve.
Sorry for the rant.
.
