There is a lot of jubilation among the Celtic fans in the Transfer Tavern at present.
The Hoops are currently unbeaten at the top of the Scottish Premiership and our landlord believes it is only a matter of time before they rap up the league title, especially following the decimation of Rangers meaning that Aberdeen currently occupy second place in the table.
Furthermore to this, Celtic fans in the Tavern are already discussing what their club need to do next season to progress up a level and compete in Europe, with many of the punters articulating that Brendan Rodgers would actually be wise to solidify the future of key men like Moussa Dembele, in order to achieve these goals.
Players like Dembele are definitely sought after by many clubs, especially when there of examples of so many players leaving Celtic in order to further their careers in England or elsewhere for that matter.
Our landlord feels it may be near impossible for Celtic to keep most of their key men much to the annoyance of his regular Celtic drinkers in the Tavern, and to back up his point he has started reeling off a list of the Celtic players that left Celtic Park and flourished elsewhere.
Though this list is massive, we have pinpointed the TWO major players that have left and progressed there career elsewhere…
Victor Wanyama
The Kenyan midfielder joined Celtic from the now dissolved Belgium club, Beerschot A.C. in 2011 and followed to score 10 goals in 61 appearances for the Hoops across two seasons, including a header against Barcelona in 2012 which helped Celtic win 2-1.
Whilst at Celtic, Wanyama became the first Kenyan to play in the SPL and his performances attracted attention from England and in 2013 he joined Southampton.
Wanyama is still a favourite among Saints fans in the Tavern however when Tottenham came calling in 2016, he moved to White Hart Lane – helping the North London club to a third place finish in his first season.
His performances since joining Spurs really solidify our Landlord picking him as one of the players who have really flourished since leaving Spurs.
Fraser Forster
The big goalkeeper initially joined Celtic on loan in 2010 and permanently signed in 2012, making 140 appearances across four years at the club.
Forster, then joined Southampton for £10million and our landlord believes he has gone on to become one of the best keepers in the Premier League during his time in the South Coast – not too mention one of the keepers in a strong pool of English keepers which include Joe Hart and Jack Butland.
Although, his shot to save ratio is one of the worst in the Premier League in 2016/17 – Saints fans in the Tavern could not be happier to have Forster in the side, and feel he has really flourished since joining their club.
