Virgil van Dijk in Scotland #3: 🗣️ 'Scotland was too easy for him. He was impossible to play against'

John Hughes’ Inverness ‘got lucky’ to overcome Van Dijk before Southampton pulled off their own transfer coup to take him south

Welcome to part III of award-winning sportswriter Stephen McGowan’s investigation series into Celtic’s two-year love affair with Virgil van Dijk.

On Monday, we heard about the Parkhead club’s extraordinary capture of the 21-year-old Van Dijk from Dutch club Groningen.

In Part II yesterday, we had reflections from Celtic’s former football development manager John Park and ex-teammate Charlie Mulgrew on Van Dijk’s special talent.

In today’s final part, John Hughes reveals how he unleashed Marley Watkins against the Dutch master to help achieve an unlikely Inverness Scottish Cup victory over Ronny Deila’s Celtic.

Parts II and III are for paid subscribers. Been waiting for right moment to support our indie journalism? Then sign up for our Nutmeg season ticket offer now…

By Stephen McGowan

A Google search shows that Virgil van Dijk has personal endorsement deals with brands as diverse as Hyperice, JBL, Nike, Heineken and Expedia. He’s also an investor and brand ambassador for the wearable fitness company Whoop. When writing this piece, people compared him to the world’s most desirable automobile so often that the thought occurred that Rolls-Royce missed a trick.

An expensive brand renowned for a smooth drive, reliability, power and grace, former Celtic defender John Hughes saw all of those characteristics in Celtic’s star man as he prepared his unfancied Inverness team for the Scottish Cup semi-final of 2015.

The first trophy of the Ronny Deila era had come in a League Cup final triumph over Dundee United at Hampden. Celtic would then finish the league season 17 points above second-placed Aberdeen. Their quest for a treble was curtailed by refereeing ineptitude in the semi-final against Caley Thistle. The Highlanders enjoyed a huge let-off when referee Steven McLean and his assistant referee Alan Muir missed a clear handball by Josh Meekings a yard off his own goal line as Leigh Griffiths looked to extend Celtic’s lead to 2-0. The incident offered the most compelling argument yet for the introduction of video technology.

“Listen, I will take it any day of the week, but I’m not going to sugar coat this, we got lucky that day,” Hughes tells Nutmeg FC now. “Josh Meekings should have been sent off for the handball.

“Celtic get Craig Gordon sent off, they’re down to 10 men and heading into added-time; with the style of football my team played, absolutely nobody wanted to be playing against Inverness with ten men.

“The fact is that we had nothing to lose that day. We were massive underdogs. We had beaten Celtic earlier in the season, we finished third in the league that season and we were confident.

“I had more of a problem in the cup final when we were massive favourites against Falkirk.

“All we had to do against Celtic was get the tactics right and that’s what we did. We pressed them high. We were compact and won the second balls and took it from there.”