The Big Derk Boerrigter Thread

Aye cheeky *.

 

Lol mind this guy

Was so buzzing when he signed. Turned out to be one of our wingers ever. Really awful footballer

 

* like a boa constrictor

 

2nd biggest waste of money club ever spent

 

The Celtic Way’s Tony Haggerty recently spoke exclusively to former Hoops winger Derk Boerrigter.

A controversial figure while at Parkhead, the Dutchman’s time at the club was marred by major injury issues, quarrels with club staff and allegations of diving.

During part one of the wide-ranging conversation, Boerrigter discusses the moment he knew his time at Celtic was up, being blocked from joining now Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag back in his homeland and his lingering anger at the SFA’s decision to ban him for simulation.

In part two, released on Saturday morning, the now 36-year-old goes in-depth on the injury issues which plagued his spell at Celtic as well as his early clashes with medical staff, finding out he was being targeted by an opposition manager and his entrepreneurial life after football.






Derk Boerrigter concedes that he knew his days at Celtic were numbered when he fell foul of manager Ronny Deila.

The Dutch winger joined the Hoops for £3million in 2013 and stayed at Parkhead for three years but played a total of just 514 minutes of first-team football amid major injury issues.

However, Boerrigter has told The Celtic Way in a two-part wide-ranging exclusive interview that the writing was on the wall for his Hoops career not because of his health but due to falling out with Deila about systems.

"Neil Lennon signed me at Celtic but, within a year, there was a manager change and Ronny Deila came to the group,” Boerrigter told TCW.

“When Deila came in, I just wanted to play football as I've done it all my life. I know where my strengths are and I know where my weaknesses are.

“But he wanted the right winger, James Forrest, as well as myself to get the ball on the wing position and then drive inside. The full-back would then overlap us and they would get the crosses into the box. It would be an overload situation like a two-versus-one down both flanks.

"I had Emilio Izaguirre behind me and, in my defence, I thought I was better at crossing the ball than Emilio. I told Deila that my crosses were better than his and more effective and that the manager should just leave me in the one-v-one situations, that Celtic didn't need to play with overlapping full-backs.




I told him (Deila) I would make sure that I gave the ball to the striker as that was my strength. I had a bit of a discussion with him about that. I said what I was good at as well as what I wasn't good at and that the same counted for other players in the team.

“But he wanted to play in a certain way that didn't suit both the Celtic way and it certainly did not suit a lot of the players at the time. He didn’t like my comments. I knew then that my career at Celtic was probably over.

"He eventually pulled me out of the team and told me that he had no room for me the next season. I told him that was perfectly fine and I did not have a problem with that and I would leave."

After the spat, Deila forced Boerrigter to train with the youth team and things became more awkward when the Dutchman had to endure long treks to places like Dingwall without seeing any game-time.

“During the whole of my third year at the club, I trained with the young boys and I wasn't even allowed to play.

"The club sometimes gave me a little bit of a hard time as well. When everybody was off, I still had to come in and train and sometimes they would send me with the development squad to Ross County which is four hours away on the bus just to sit on the bench and then drive four hours back.




I think Celtic tried to force me to quit so they could cancel my contract. It wasn't the nicest time back then but this is how it goes sometimes."

Things went from bad to worse when a potential way out of Parkhead and back to his homeland failed to come to fruition due to wages.

He added: "Deila wanted money for me as he wanted to sell me but obviously I hadn't played that many games in the two years because of my ankle injury and it was quite hard for me to find a new club.

"I knew Erik ten Hag, who was the manager of Utrecht at the time and is now the Manchester United manager, wanted to sign me and I was speaking to him personally. I said I was happy to join but the wages were a problem… it was unbelievably bad with the wages.

"So I talked to Celtic and I said to them ‘listen this is what I can make at Utrecht and this is what I make here, can we reach a compromise?’ but they didn't want to so I had no choice but to stay in Scotland and see out my contract.”

He did just that – eventually agreeing to an early termination in April 2016. At that stage he had not made a first-team appearance since August 2014, the same month that he was banned by the Scottish football authorities for simulation in a 3-0 win against St Johnstone.



Boerrigter still rails against that particular slight on his character. Although referee John Beaton awarded the Dutchman a penalty and sent off Saints captain Dave Mackay for denying him a goalscoring opportunity in the flashpoint on the day, the SFA cited him afterwards.

The governing body accused him of causing "a match official to make an incorrect decision by committing an act of simulation" and he consequently copped a two-match retrospective ban.

“I remember the ban I got, it was for diving,” he said. “Honestly, it was something I'd never, ever experienced in my life before. I don't know how it was even possible. I'd played many games in Holland and this was the first time that this had ever happened to me when I played at Celtic.

“First of all it wasn't a dive as the St Johnstone guy did touch me. He knocked me off balance so I couldn't shoot properly or kick the ball.

"I thought ‘I can't shoot’ because he gave me a light tap on my back. I felt it. If I could still stand then I would have gotten a proper shot at goal. The first thing you're going to do when somebody knocks you off balance is that you're going to fall.

“It was a penalty and, well, the red card might have been a little bit harsh for the opposition but that's what the referee gave.

"To give me a retrospective ban after the event was ludicrous. I still think it was one of the worst decisions ever."

 

Will never forget being at his first game against Ross County at Celtic Park. Had about half an hour of terrorising them before his hamstring went (or it was some sort of serious injury similar to that).

Never truly recovered.

 

Comes across like an absolute * to me.

Luckily for him, he’s got a boa constrictor.

 

Yeah I remember he was unplayable that day before his hamstring went.

Sent from my SM-A505FN using Tapatalk

 

This * is a space cadet. Achieved * all and gives it the big “I Am”.

 

The Celtic Way’s Tony Haggerty recently spoke exclusively to former Hoops winger Derk Boerrigter.

A controversial figure while at Parkhead, the Dutchman’s time at the club was marred by major injury issues, quarrels with club staff and allegations of diving.

During part one of the wide-ranging conversation, which you can read here, Boerrigter discusses the moment he knew his time at Celtic was up, being blocked from joining now Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag back in his homeland and his lingering indignation at the SFA’s decision to ban him for simulation.

In part two, the now 36-year-old goes in-depth on the injury issues which plagued his spell at Celtic as well as his early clashes with medical staff, finding out he was being targeted by an opposition manager and his entrepreneurial life after football.




Derk Boerrigter was cruelly christened 'sicknote' by sections of the Ajax supporters when he turned out for the Dutch club. Ironically, it was also injuries that put paid to his Celtic career.

He never quite managed to live that perception down when he signed for the Hoops under Neil Lennon for £3million in the summer of 2013.

The Dutchman was a high-profile purchase brought in to try to offset the departures of popular duo Victor Wanyama and Gary Hooper. Boerrigter had come with a pedigree after scoring for Ajax in the Champions League against Real Madrid in the Santiago Bernabeu.

He also arrived in Glasgow with an ankle injury. It was a problem that was to prove his very undoing at Celtic. According to Boerrigter that issue then led to knee and back problems and thus prevented him from showing his true worth to the club.

Indeed, he lasted just 39 minutes of his Parkhead debut – a 2-1 win over Ross County – after taking painkillers to mask the suffering that he endured from his bad ankle. He also contends that he would never have played in the game if not for the Hoops coaching staff’s insistence.

"I expected a lot more from my time at Celtic but the problem was that I came in with an injury,” Boerrigter told The Celtic Way. “I had pain in my ankle when I joined and I told the club's medical staff all about it. When I signed I also told the club I had not played in a fortnight or trained at Ajax due to the injury.

"Celtic told me to go out and train but I told them l couldn't do it. The club were adamant that I was fit enough to train. I was new and I didn't want to be called a sissy or have a bad reputation for being injured straight away.

"So I thought ‘I'm new here, I'm going to take some painkillers and I'm going to see how well I do in the training session’. It was a tough session. I couldn't stand and run on my foot and I couldn't kick a ball because of the pain in my ankle. I thought I would just give it my best and then a week later the first league game was scheduled.

“I kept on complaining about my ankle. They told me I was going to start next the next game. I remember saying to the club doctors ‘are you serious?’




“I was just in the door at Celtic and I was constantly complaining about my ankle, saying that I had a lot of pain in it and I couldn't even kick the ball properly, so I asked ‘what did you expect from me?’”

As it turned out, the Dutchman was running around on a broken ankle. What’s worse, subsequently Boerrigter was informed by a compatriot playing for the Staggies in that game that his dodgy ankle was deliberately targeted under the instructions of then County boss Derek Adams, who had learned of his injury issues.

"I started the Ross County game after taking some painkillers,” he said. “Around the 39-minute mark, I got another kick on my ankle from an opponent and was substituted. The funny thing is there were some Dutch guys playing for Ross County at the time – Darren Maatsen, Kevin Luckassen and Melvin De Leeuw – and I met them six months later in Glasgow and they told me that the Ross County team were aware that I had a bad ankle. Their manager instructed the right-back to hurt the winger and to go for his left ankle… and that is exactly what happened.

"Celtic were quite hard on me afterwards, they didn't let me go and see a doctor or anything. Eventually, I had to get my agents involved in order to get an ultrasound scan and when the results came back it turned out that I had a broken ankle; the bone structure had a big crack in it and that is what was causing the pain in my ankle.

“The worst part is that I kept on making it worse instead of making it better. So I was out for like six months after that. It was not the ideal start to my Celtic career – my injury problems and diagnosis could all have been handled and dealt with in a better way."

Boerrigter's injury curse was only just starting. He recovered from the ankle problems after half a year out but then contracted a knee injury due to putting extra weight on his left leg in compensating for the hurt right ankle. Another six months out lay in wait.

"After those six months walking around with a sore ankle I was finally back from that injury,” he explained. “I was walking differently as I had been putting more weight on my left leg so I ended up getting pain in my right knee. I had never had knee problems in my whole career and then, because of that troublesome ankle problem, I started getting injuries in other places.

"My right knee had inflammation underneath the kneecap and it was diagnosed that I needed more surgery to be done to take the pain away again. That was another setback which took six months to recover from.




I just wasn't very lucky when I came to Celtic but these are things that not many people know. The supporters remember me as the guy who was always injured. I was never really injured in my whole career before – everything bad that happened injury-wise to me came after I signed for Celtic. It was all down to bad luck and receiving kicks on my ankle but I couldn't do anything about it.

"It was a combination of being unfortunate but also I feel if I would’ve had the right medical staff to deal with certain kinds of injuries then I could have been back out on the pitch a lot sooner – and if Celtic had just listened to me when I told them I had pains in my ankle after I signed, that I wasn't saying it for effect. That's the thing.

“I'm hard on myself because I know what I can do. I know how good a player I was but I wanted to be 100 per cent fit and I knew I wasn't. If I am running around at 60 per cent of my full capabilities then what can I do?

"It is what it is. I know I would have done a lot better at Celtic if I was fully fit. Sadly, I never got that chance to prove it."

It wasn't all bad news for Boerrigter in Glasgow. There were some fleeting good times and moments. He played 16 games and scored his one and only goal in a 3-1 victory against Aberdeen.

"I definitely remember the goal I scored,” he said. “One goal in 16 matches is not the best statistic for Celtic and it is nothing to write home about – and I think I played over 50 games for Ajax and I scored sixteen goals, so that's a much better ratio.”

Having played for two of European football's most renowned clubs – Ajax and Celtic – Boerrigter harbours no misgivings at how his football career panned out.

“I have no regrets, none whatsoever,” Boerrigter added. “Nobody can take away the fact that I played and scored in the Champions League for Ajax. I actually scored two goals in the Champions League – once against Real Madridin the Santiago Bernabeu and the other one against Dinamo Zagreb.

"But things happen for a reason, I am quite philosophical about life. I can't do anything about it anymore. I can't turn back time. I enjoyed my time with Celtic, especially my time living there – I loved Scotland and I loved Glasgow, every minute of it.

“Life was good. I made some great friends there but I went to Scotland to play football and it just didn't work out on that side of things. That was the most important part missing from my time in Scotland.”



It may have been missing then but the 36-year-old still kicks a ball about now. Most weekends he can be found playing at * level, where one of his team-mates is none other than former Netherlands and Chelsea defender Khalid Boulahrouz.

"I still turn out for a local * team on a Sunday,” he said. “Khalid is one of my team-mates and there are also some other former ex-professional football players in the team as well.

"We're all a little bit older and we play against younger boys but the funny thing is that we can all still play. We don't run as much anymore but it's good fun. The brain is still there and you don't lose the skills.

"In our last two matches, we won 7-0 and 10-0 and I think we played 18 games or something like that this season and we have scored more than 100 goals already. You never lose it!"

Having tried his luck on the field, Boerrigter is now keen to make it as an entrepreneur off it.

He has recently packed in a shoe business and entered into a new venture with his girlfriend involving ultrasounds as well as supplying supplements to pregnant women.

“I had no ambitions of becoming a football coach or a trainer,” he said. “I have an interest in many things right now and I am trying to become a really successful entrepreneur. I tried my luck with the shoe business and I learned a lot from it but it has now come to an end.

"I'm involved in another business involving ultrasound with my girlfriend as she is a midwife and an ultrasound specialist. We have her own ultrasound business in Holland and it works really well.

"We have also set up a new business which involves supplying food supplements for pregnant women. It is a totally new venture which we will be launching in May and, hopefully, that will be very successful."

What about Celtic? Does Boerrigter still keep tabs on the fortune of his old club?

"The funny thing is I still do,” he confirmed. “I have a lot of football on my TV here and I watch all the Celtic v Rangers games whenever they are on.

"There were some bad things that happened to me at Celtic but overall I had a really good time in Scotland and made some good friends and connections. Sometimes things just don't work out the way you want them."

Footballer, sicknote, entrepreneur... whatever way you remember him, welcome back to the weird, wonderful and colourful world of Derk Boerrigter.

 

If true, paints a really bleak picture of the coaching and medical staff from that time period.

 

It’s bizarre to me we would play a player who says he’s injured.

I can’t imagine Ange doing that.

If you think the player is injured you don’t play him.

If you think he is lying you don’t play him and you show him the door.

Reflects poorly on Lenny IMO.

 

Ridiculous. Doesn't surprise you though, bet he's not the only one that would tell that story.

 

Remember when Delia came in and was horrified at the state Lenny left us in especially Player health and fitness, he was so focused on fixing our physical standards that he neglected some other areas, Rogers built a lot on what Delia had already started.

 

I buy both that he was a difficult man to manage and that he's also telling the truth about the state of our medical at the time. Does not surprise me one bit that he was asked to play on a broken ankle. By the same token, however, you don't get sent to play with the youth team for a year simply for questioning the wisdom of overlapping fullbacks. You have to be both useless and a consistent disruption to earn that kind of treatment.

 

This 100%. Both can be true.

 

‘The Tampon’

In for one week, out for three.

 

* he isn't bitter at all is he what an article in the rags today