Joel van den Berg – “You need to give him a bit of time but he will be good for Celtic,” Loovens
Former Celtic defender Glenn Loovens has talked up one Celtic summer signing while being less enthusiast about another of the new arrivals at Lennoxtown…
In the next episode of the Warm Up podcast former Celtic captain Scott Brown will listing the three midfield summer signings couldn’t quite remember the Joel van den Berg’s name.
The 19 year-old was signed from PSV Eindhoven for a fee of £3.4million but hasn’t been seen on the park and at the recent Glasgow Derby defeat to the Rangers, he was pictured wearing a moonboot, suggesting it will be a while yet before he gets his chance to play for Celtic.
One man who has seen Joel van den Berg play is Glen Loovens, who these days works as a talent scout based in Belgium, and he reckons that the Dutch teenager can make an big impact for his old club.
“Have I seen him? Of course. Van den Berg I watched a lot for young PSV.” Loovens said, as reported by Daily Record. “He’s a very good young talent. Real box-to-box player. He’s got an eye for goal as well.
“For how young he is, he’s already got a good physical size. You need to give him a bit of time because he’s young but he will be a huge success for Celtic.
“Is he highly thought of in Holland? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They already put him to the first team last year,” Loovens stated.
He added: “He made his debut and played another couple of games for PSV. So he’s a big talent. He’s young. He goes abroad. New surroundings. Everything is new. You need to give him a bit of time but he will be good for Celtic.”
Age isn’t going to be a barrier for Van den Berg making an impact at Celtic this season, with Loovens believing that experienced players like the Celtic captain Callum McGregor and the club’s most decorated player James Forrest can help guide him through everything that’s required to allow his football to do the talking.
“As a young player, you always need guidance,” Loovens explained. “From your senior players around you. So, of course, they will benefit as well to help him. Because, like I said, he will be a good player for Celtic.”
However another summer signing for Celtic, who Loovens is also familiar with, is Jordan Lotomba and it’s fair to say that there is less positivity from Loovens on the Swiss full-back who he reckons will be no more that a squad player, as was the situation at Feyenoord.
“Then the right back (Lotomba). He was second choice right back at Feyenoord. So I probably think they took him to widen the squad. Not so much to play. That’s what I think. Because they have Alistair Johnston. When he’s back fit, he’ll be probably back number one again.”
On the current situation, with Celtic having lost three matches on the bounce ahead of the extended international break that is thankfully now over, Glen Loovens reckons that Martin O’Neill will now get Celtic back on the right road, while saying he’d be doing his best to watch the upcoming games to see how things unfold for the Hoops.
“If possible I try to watch them. There’s always a little bit of panic when you lose a couple of games on the bounce, which is normal. Especially against the big rivals of course.
“I have faith that they will turn it around and they have enough quality in the squad to get things going.
“I’m not sure we ever lost three or four on the bounce. In these times you have to stick together. That’s the only way. Work hard. Go back to the basics. The quality they have. If you sort these things out, the quality will shine again,” Loovens noted.
We’ll see on Sunday lunchtime at Fir Park if Celtic can get back to winning ways ahead of the flight to Lisbon to face Benfica in the Europa League a week tonight.
Glen Loovens won three major honours at Celtic, one league, one Scottish Cup and one League Cup, in his 84 appearances where he scored nine goals. After leaving Celtic he played for Real Zaragoza in Spain for a season before moving to Sheffield Wednesday, becoming their captain and stying for five seasons before a year at Sunderland rounded off his career.
