Celtic agree £1.5m fee for Virgo

[Celtic Mad]

Celtic agree £1.5m fee for Virgo

Celtic have agreed a £1.5m fee with Brighton for the English Championship outfit's defender, Adam Virgo.

The 22-year-old will travel to Celtic Park for talks about personal terms and a possible medical on Wednesday.

Brighton manager Mark McGhee believes that Virgo has the ability to make a similar impact to Chris Sutton.

"He is a great athlete, has a fantastic attitude and can play in the heart of defence, right back, midfield or up front," said the former Celtic striker.

"But I think his best position is in defence and that is where he will make his name with Celtic.

"When I arrived at the club, he was on loan at Exeter, but I quickly realised his abilities and he has been in my team since then. I've supported Brighton all my life, but sometimes you just can't say no to an opportunity such as this

"He has the ability to succeed at Celtic and the fact that they have offered £1.5m for him shows the faith they have in him too.

"It's with great sadness that that we say farewell, but I totally support board's decision as I understand the financial restraints at this club."

Brighton chairman Dick Knight says he rejected two previous approaches from Celtic until they met his valuation of the locally-born player who was their player of the season last term.

"This is a bittersweet moment for Mark McGhee, the board and myself," said Knight.

"While the money will enable the club to survive the coming months as we await the stadium decision, we are all very conscious that we are losing an exceptional player - in fact, two players because of his versatility.

"But the club's survival comes first and, at this price, reluctantly, we have to let Adam go to the wonderful opportunity offered him by Celtic.

"Some of the Virgo transfer money will immediately be made available to Mark for squad strengthening as a result of Adam leaving."

Virgo added: "People might think that joining Celtic was an easy decision, but you have to think about your family and the people you are leaving.

-------------------------------

From BBC Sport

[Rosco67]

He sounds promising, but isn't that more let downs
Boruc instead of Niemi
Zurawski instead of Bellamy
This guy instead of a pursued interest in Dellas

O well, im happy to let him come in and proove me very wrong!

[greenirishbhoy]

rosco ithink your right my freind lived in brighton when shewas going2 a university therel unti last summer and she went2 see brighton afew times and she said hes nothing specail so looks likes we have signed a donkey hope im wrong

[Djmiles]

Last summer i would have said he wasn't good enough to play for Celtic, but a year has done so much for him, and he is a much much better player than he was this time last year.