5th September 2026; The Marbill Coaches Stadium, Paisley, Scotland; Scottish Premiership Football, St Mirren versus Celtic; Joel van den Berg of Celtic
Since being knocked out of the Champions League by LASK Linz Joel van Den Berg is the only player that Celtic have signed on a permanent basis.
True, a nine month contract was given to Jordan Lotomba but his status as third choice right-back will be downgraded with the return of Alistair Johnston.
Apparently Celtic paid £3.5m for van den Berg, the club’s messengers gave the young midfielder the big build up while others asked why PSV Eindhoven were happy to cash in on such an emerging talent.
Celtic fans have waited and waited to see van den Berg in action.
It isn’t as if the midfield is functioning so well that he can’t get a look in.
Clearly midfield is a problem. Oliver Sorensen and Luke McCowan have been drafted in to start the last two matches and replaced at half-time.
Van den Berg is nowhere to be seen.
Martin O’Neill left him out of Celtic’s Europa League squad. That kind of pointed towards a greater involvement in domestic matches.
@celticway1888 Need to get him on the pitch to allow him to ‘become a success’.
— Zin ??????? (@Zin3th) October 7, 2026
Van den Berg was named as a Celtic substitute away to St Mirren and St Johnstone but didn’t get on the pitch.
VAN DEN BERG DISAPPEARS WITH NO QUESTIONS ASKED
He failed to make the bench for either Glasgow Derby. At the home match he was pictured in a moon boot.
During the international break there was no mention of van den Berg and what his injury may be.
On Friday Martin O’Neill spoke to Sky Sports, a broadcast media conference then the written media. There is no reference to van den Berg anywhere.
During the broadcast conference O’Neill was asked about Landon Emenalo, thereply was typically vague:
Yeah, I’m hoping to see him. With a bit of luck he’ll come up tomorrow and he’ll start with us next week. Of course, he’s not with the European team, so he’ll hardly be travelling out to Benfica with us, or we might even get some work there. But yeah, that’s pleasing again.
There is a Jahmai Simpson-Pussey feel to that deal. Emenalo could quietly return to Chelsea in January.
Van den Berg is a different case, a permanent signing. It seems that project signings now come in around the £3m mark.
Celtic doesn’t have a strategy or plan for van den Berg or any young player.
You can go back to Luca Connell or whoever else that arrived with the fanfare of the club messengers.
At 19 van den Berg is in a foreign country, with a club under severe pressure and hasn’t played any sort of match since August 26.
If he does get a chance in the coming month he will be ill-prepared and short of match fitness.
It will be sink or swim for van den Berg at Celtic. His agent is probably looking at setting up a loan move in January.
Meanwhile Odin Thiago Holm has played 277 minutes this season over 12 appearances for Valerenga.
Is it a possibility that young Van den Berg was signed when he was already carrying a bad injury ? He’s not played a game yet ..so either the Celtic training sessions are like Middle Eastern warfare on the ground or he’s been signed up already injured which was overlooked by the board ? Or maybe the guy hurt his foot tying his laces ? I suppose we will find out one of these days ….then again !
look back over the years and many players highly rated in their own country’s don’t get a sniff in here , even when we’re really shite
and O’Neill’s constant vagueness is wearing thin