Brendan Rodgers claims losing Dorus De Vries hurt him as much as losing Luis Suarez.
New Celtic signing Dorus De Vries in action for Nottingham Forest
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has admitted to The Scottish Sun that losing new signing Dorus De Vries at Swansea hurt him as much as seeing Luis Suarez leave Liverpool.
Having snapped up defender Kolo Toure, winger Scott Sinclair and striker Moussa Dembele this summer, Celtic boss Rodgers swooped to land his fourth signing of the summer on Saturday evening by snapping up Dorus De Vries.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers
Dutch goalkeeper De Vries, 35, joins from Nottingham Forest having made 48 appearances for the Championship side last season, and has been brought in as competition for Celtic’s first-choice stopper Craig Gordon.
De Vries is no stranger to Scottish football having spent a year with Dunfermline, and he’s certainly no stranger to Celtic manager Rodgers.
Bhoys manager Rodgers and his new signing De Vries worked together at Swansea City and achieved promotion to the Premier League in 2011, but De Vries surprisingly left the Liberty Stadium for Wolverhampton Wanderers in the summer of 2011.
Dorus De Vries
After just 34 appearances in four seasons away from Rodgers, De Vries finally returned to regular first-team action last season as Forest’s first-choice goalkeeper – and now he’s back with Rodgers again.
De Vries penned a two-year deal with Celtic on Saturday, and manager Rodgers has been speaking to The Scottish Sun about the deal – and drew comparisons to Barcelona star Luis Suarez, which is bound to raise some eyebrows.
Dorus De Vries in action for Nottingham Forest
The reason for that likeness is because Rodgers claims that only twice in his managerial has he been ‘really, really disappointed’ to lose a player – and whilst losing Suarez at Liverpool back in 2014 was one, the first one was De Vries at Swansea because of his ability to play out from the back.
“For me I need to have, and how we work, a goalkeeper that means when we have possession we have 11 players — that he can distribute the ball and pass it.,” said Rodgers. “Dorus is as good as I’ve seen in that in all my travels.”
“I’ve been really, really disappointed twice in my career when I’ve lost players — one was Luis Suarez at Liverpool and the first one was Dorus de Vries at Swansea. That’s because he was such a key part of how I worked there,” he added.
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