CRAIG Gordon will not be the first to arrive in Amsterdam hoping to experience something new. The city of canals, coffee shops and other exotic attractions will have plenty to offer the large travelling support who will head there this week to take in Celtic’s opening Europa League game against Ajax.
Gordon is similarly unlikely to get the chance to wander the streets taking in Amsterdam’s many sights and charms but the chance to tick off something from his own personal bucket list should still present itself on Thursday evening. Gordon has been inside Ajax’s famous Amsterdam ArenA, with its peculiar capital A at the end, several times in his career. He was on the bench the night Scotland went down 3-0 to their hosts in March 2009, the night that led to the infamous Boozegate incident.
He was there, too, but injured, when Sunderland once ventured over to Amsterdam on a pre-season tour. And he thinks there have been one or two other occasions when he has had reason to take a seat inside the famous, cavernous stadium.
But he is yet to play a game there. That should change on Thursday night when Celtic look to get a Europa League campaign they didn’t want a month ago off to the best possible start.
“I’ve never played there before,” he said. “I was there with Scotland a few times on the bench and for a pre-season tournament with Sunderland when I was injured. So I’ve been to the stadium on a few occasions but never managed to play there.”
Ajax, like Celtic, have found it increasingly difficult to hold on to their better players in recent times as bigger, wealthier clubs from neighbouring leagues swoop in with unstinting regularity to raid their squad. And so in recent years there has been a steady flow of players heading mainly to England: Daley Blind to Manchester United, Siem de Jong to Newcastle United, Christian Eriksen and Jan Vertonghen to Tottenham Hotspur, and Luis Suarez to Liverpool.
Ajax have recouped sizeable transfer fees from these sales and then recruited their replacements at a fraction of the cost. Their star turns now include Dutch national team goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen, Johnny Heitinga, once of Everton, Arek Milik, the dangerous Polish striker, and Lasse Schone who scored the only goal when these teams last met in Amsterdam on Champions League duty two years ago.
When you throw in Fenerbahce, who now boast Robin van Persie and Nani in their ranks, and Molde, the Norwegian champions, it is a group with multiple threats.
“It’s a glamorous but difficult group with big clubs in it,” Gordon said. “Fenerbahce in Pot 3 was probably the toughest draw we could have got as they’ve spent a lot of money. So it’ll be hard, a real challenge, but I’m looking forward to it. We know what we’ll come up against, top players who have been around the international stage and who have shown their quality on many occasions. This season’s Europa League group feels like a step up in terms of the clubs in our group.
“People will recognise all the names because they’ve been in the Champions League or Europa League for the last couple of seasons. We won’t need many introductions to the players we’ll face. Cillesen, for example, was excellent at the World Cup in Brazil and he’s been a top goalkeeper for a few years now. It’s another thing I enjoy doing, going up against the top keepers in Europe and showing what I can do.”
Celtic know what it is like to have to reconstruct a team every season. Gordon and Emilio Izaguirre will be the only survivors out of the back five from the last 32 Europa League defeat to Inter in February – with Jason Denayer’s loan spell having come to an end, and both Virgil van Dijk and Adam Matthews sold over the summer.
“There will be a transition in defence and it will take time,” admitted Gordon. “There have been a few changes but we’ll settle on a back four at training in the coming weeks and we’ll get to know each other. We have big games coming up in the league and in Europe so we need to bed it in as soon as possible.”Celtic know what it is like to have to reconstruct a team every season. Gordon and Emilio Izaguirre will be the only survivors from their last European tie – the last 32 Europa League defeat to Inter in February – with Jason Denayer’s loan spell having come to an end, and both Virgil van Dijk and Adam Matthews sold over the summer.
“There will be a transition in defence and it will take time,” admitted Gordon. “There have been a few changes but we’ll settle on a back four at training in the coming weeks and we’ll get to know each other. We have big games coming up in the league and in Europe so we need to bed it in as soon as possible.”
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