Out of touch Arthur Numan wants Virgil van Dijk to quit Celtic for England.
The former Rangers (IL) defender was in Glasgow yesterday to promote Tesco Bank’s four year partnership with the Scottish FA’s Tesco Bank Football Challenge.
Apart from the Dutch angle it’s hard to see any real similarity between Numan and van Dijk who both arrived in Scotland in entirely different circumstances.
While van Dijk arrived as a 21-year-old on modest wages from Groningen Numan joined Rangers (IL) as a 28-year-old fresh from the World Cup in France for a £5m fee, signing shortly after Daniel Prodan.
After one season at Celtic van Dijk has admirers throughout England after making over 40 appearances, Numan made just 8 SPL appearances in his opening season at Ibrox with Tony Vidmar proving to be a more than able back up starting 26 SPL matches for Dick Advoccat’s side.
Undeterred by that, and having been paid £510,000 through an EBT according to the BBC, Numan decided to offer free career advice to the Celtic defender.
He said: “When a player comes to Scotland you spend a year or two trying to impress  but when you’re there four years and play Ross County seven times a season it can be hard to motivate yourself. You can stay too long.
“Maybe Virgil will think now he needs another step in his career. Going to England to play in one of the best clubs in Europe may be better for himself and for the national team.
“If the Dutch coach comes over to see him play against Ross County he will wonder how Virgil would do against top international players. It’s hard to judge him when he is playing against strikers from a smaller team.
“I think that was the reason he was never in Louis van Gaal’s squad for the World Cup. He plays in Scotland while the other Dutch players are in big competitions and that is probably why he was never chosen.”
After refusing to take a pay-cut in 2003, and at the age of just 33 Numan retired from football.
For Numan’s benefit van Dijk played three times last season against Ross County and is currently in the Dutch international squad picked by Guus Hiddink.
Turning towards the liquidation of his old club and the imminent administration of it’s successor Numan believes in a tried and tested method of attempting to compete with Celtic.
Advocaat’s arrival at Ibrox was bankrolled by the unquestioning lending facility from Bank of Scotland but after they were taken over by Halifax and then Lloyds TSB the club switched to EBT’s to recruit a team paid way beyond normal boundaries.
“I hope that someone comes in and says, okay, I want to put a lot of money into the club and try to take all the insecurity away by the supporters – because that’s most important,” Numan suggested.
“Then you try to get Rangers back into the Premier League and get a team on the park that’s strong enough to compete with Celtic.
“And hopefully they can qualify for Europe with someone who is in charge who makes it clear to the supporters and the press what his intentions are, because nobody knows.”
It seems that the lessons of the Murray and Advocaat years have still to be taken on board by Numan.
The reasoning behind why the SFA pay someone to be critical of a well run and tax paying club like Ross County while apparently promoting grass roots football is difficult to work out.
Tonight at Cappielow Celtic’s Development side take on Dundee, kick-off 7pm, admission free.
CLICK HERE for Audheid’s view on How Not To Run Scottish Football