I am reviewing and selecting my team of the decade in celebration of Celtic’s Decade of Dominance and will select my XI that I feel have been the club’s best in the last ten years.
I have already selected Fraser Forster as my number one goalkeeper along with Mikael Lustig and Kieran Tierney as my fullbacks; however, the question remains as to who I will include as my central defenders.
Before I begin, there are a few notable mentions – Kelvin Wilson was impressive in his short time at Celtic Park, Kris Ajer has been incredible in recent seasons as well as Dedryck Boyata. However, the two players that I have selected as my preferred defensive pairing are Charlie Mulgrew and Virgil Van Dijk.
Mulgrew was released by Celtic in 2005 and after spells at Dundee Utd, Wolves and Aberdeen, he returned to Celtic Park as Neil Lennon’s first signing in 2010. Mulgrew was called upon to play a number of positions, left back, left mid, central midfield and the position that he excelled in – central defence. Mulgrew was released in 2016 but in his 6 years at Celtic Park he was a leader and a member of a successful period for the club.
His reliability and versatility were amongst his talents, especially in the 2011/12 season when he earned player of the year. In that season, Mulgrew opened the scoring in a 3-0 thrashing of Rangers and you saw how much it meant to the boyhood Celtic fan.
Beside Mulgrew is that Dutch fella that plays for Liverpool these days. Virgil Van Dijk is one of the greatest defenders in the world and it is partially due to that – as well as his contribution to Celtic in his time here that he earns his place in my Team of the Decade. Van Dijk arrived as an unknown quantity and I remember someone on Facebook slagging him after his debut, the Dutch colossus has gone from strength to strength. In his time in Glasgow, he gave Celtic a ball-playing defender that’s physical presence would belittle strikers as he strolled through games.
His one match versus Rangers exemplified that he was on another level, he strolled through the midfield and sent the challenging player flying with a brush of the shoulder. A move to Southampton and a £75m move to Anfield later has Van Dijk pinned as one of my players of the decade, 2019 saw him a Champion of Europe – maybe 2020 holds the a Premier League medal.