Celtic completed the signing of goalkeeper Dorus de Vries on Saturday after the Dutchman signed a two-year deal with the Scottish champions. The move sees Rodgers reuniting with another player he worked with priorly in England. The duo had worked together at Swansea City and Rodgers could not hide his excitement after reuniting with the 35-year-old who spent the last three season at English Championship side Nottingham Forest.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers declared the summer signing from Forest will be a serious contender to Craig Gordon for the No 1 spot. Nowadays plenty of top sides in world football look to have two quality keepers at the same time which eventually brings out the best from both. Celtic will have the luxury this season and there will be no room for errors.
De Vries has previous experience of playing in Scotland with Dunfermline prior to a move to Swansea, where he worked closely with Rodgers. The Northern Irishman rates keepers with good ability on the ball and who can pick out passes and the Dutchman fits the bill. Craig Gordon’s place between the sticks could well be in jeopardy now.
Rodgers said: ‘I’ve been really disappointed twice in my career at losing players — one was Suarez at Liverpool and the first one was Dorus when leaving Swansea.
‘He was such a key part of how I worked there. Dorus was outstanding, he understands the game. His game is perfectly suited to how I want to work. He’s here to push Craig.
‘He’s a really fit guy, he’s 35 but look at guys like (Edwin) Van der Sar who played right through till 40 and had some of his best years in that final part of their career.
‘Dorus has been nursing a slight knock, so we’re just assessing that. He’s with the medical team and I expect him to join the goalkeepers tomorrow.
‘He can distribute, pass the ball and Dorus is as good as I’ve seen in all my travels.
Both Celtic and Nottingham Forest fans took it to Twitter to react on the transfer. Nottingham fans seem really gutted about the exit while Celtic fans are on cloud nine at the moment. Here are some tweets on the transfer.
@celticfc hopefully not the last signing
— Dillon Maguire (@Dill_maguire7) August 13, 2016
@celticfc welcome to Celtic DOV! That our wildcard?
— Peter M (@BkHazard) August 13, 2016
@celticfc welcome to paradise Dorus. ????
— kazghirl1888 (@kazghirl1888) August 13, 2016
@Forest_Central @Celtic1888News @Liam67M @celticfc looking forward to seeing him , heard nothing but good things about him
— Steven mcginley (@stevenmcgin) August 13, 2016
Dorus De Vries in Glasgow to sign for the Swansea cast-offs XI commonly known as Celtic #Celtic #Swans
— Planet Swans (@swansnews) August 12, 2016
Goodbye Dorus De Vries and thank you for everything. Quality goalkeeper last season but clearly thinks #NFFC isn’t the right place anymore.
— Dan (@Dan_LowerBC) August 13, 2016
Sad to see de Vries go, proper gent and a good pro, not got a bad word to say about him. #NFFC
— NFFC (@NFFC_Edits) August 13, 2016
Dorus de Vries made a good decision. #nffc lost a great keeper, but if you get the chance to play in Europe with #celtic at 35 – you take it
— Martin Ackerley (@MartinAckerley) August 13, 2016
