IF Ronny Deila is getting the maximum pleasure from his inaugural Tour of Scotland, no-one has made a greater contribution to those trips than Virgil van Dijk.
Pittodrie, Tynecastle and Fir Park have all been recently ticked off by the Celtic manager, who relishes the way that away days bring out the maximum passion from the travelling support as well as the local public.
It is a journey which saw Van Dijk silence the Aberdeen fans with a last-minute winner before netting twice against Hearts in the Scottish Cup. The Dutchman is putting himself firmly on the map of Britain's most coveted footballers every time he steps on to the pitch.
Today Tannadice and Dundee United await Deila and van Dijk. However, the Norwegian is confident there will be plenty more trips together in the New Year, as opposed to Van Dijk making a lucrative move to England, because Deila believes the pair have established a special relationship.
Both Arsenal and Liverpool have been linked with the centre-back, recently capped by the Netherlands. However, rather than wait for agents to be involved, Deila felt it was better to deal with van Dijk himself.
"There have not been any formal talks," explained Deila. "He is enjoying being here now, is training well and is happy. He is a very, very good player and we want to keep him.
"At some point he will want to go to another stage, but right now we think it is best for him to stay here. That is what we want. We talk together and I think we have a big respect for each other and what we want."
The principal objective of the January transfer window for Celtic is to keep Van Dijk and freshen up the squad. Jo Inge Berget might have scored twice in the 6-1 home defeat of Dundee United in August, but the Norwegian remained a fringe player at Celtic
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