A few months ago we wrote about Derek Boeriggter and described him as a Celtic “Sick Note”. Terms like flop and dud etc are actually thrown around a little too much in on some Celtic sites – but in referring to the Dutchman in that way we felt justified.
Neil Lennon was the Celtic manager when we bought Boeriggter from Ajax for £3million and frankly the evidence was there to warn Celtic off.
Now after the dust has settled on his time in Glasgow watching Celtic players train and play for an incredible sum of money each week the Dutchman has spoken out about his financial stand-off in Glasgow. Before we look at that though let’s have a look back at the ‘Sick Note’ article on The Celtic Star…
‘Sick note’ former £3 million Celtic flop, his hurt feelings remain as he ‘stops playing’
CELTIC paid £3 million for him in 2013 and there have been a right few bad signings over the years, but Derk Boerrigter takes the biscuit and is by far and away the worst signing in the club’s history!
And after failing to find a club he deemed suitable for him following his release from Celtic in April 2016, the Dutch winger today announced his retirement from the game. He went out talking about his hurt feelings about the way he was unfairly categorized in the game and how it was all the fault of dirty players kicking him.
Ajax presumably couldn’t believe their luck when Peter Lawwell signed a cheque for £3 million back in 2013. For Neil Lennon, relatively clever and usually successful in his transfer business, this would prove to be a major embarrassment.
He made his debut against Ross County at Celtic Park in early August 2013 on flag day, started brightly then went off injured. From then on it was simply about him picking up a wage as a complete passenger, with the very occasional appearance for the side. In total we had the ‘pleasure’ of his company on 8 match days.
Now, still only 31, Derk has had enough of the beautiful game although in truth, the game has had enough of him taking huge sums of money from it, and offering pretty much nothing back in return.
“I hoped that I could still find an attractive club and carry on playing football,” he moaned.
“Some clubs did come in for me, but none of them were worth bothering about. They did not offer me a sporting challenge, or tempt me financially.
“People often think: ‘That Boerrigter is injury-prone’. But I have never had a serious muscle injury or a torn hamstring.
“Whenever I got injured it was as a result of a kick. The last time I played, the first time I received a pass someone launched a two-footed assault on my ankles from behind.
“I thought if that was how it was going to be, I would stop playing.
“I prefer not to play football any more at that level.”
Stop playing? The Falling Dutchman never really got started, did he?
Now he’s been busy talking about the reasons he stayed as long as he did in Glasgow – to pick up as much money as he possibly could – £12,000 a week to be exact.
He has told Exprof: “They wanted to get rid of me. But I stayed and, I say this honestly, it was because of the money. The salary was too good to give up, and especially if you see what my club history was.
“I played football in the Jupiler League not just for an apple and an egg but you won’t get rich from it.
“We still negotiated, Celtic wanted to give me three months’ salary, but I wanted more and that did not materialise. Then I stayed and got all 12 months.”
