Celtic great lays down some cold facts to destroy England hype machine

Even if you still have an aftertaste of the bitter variety from Pierre van Hooijdonk's Celtic exit 21 years ago, you can never deny the happiness he once brought.

For two and a half seasons, the Dutch master lit up Scotland and electrified Parkhead with just a relentless knack of scoring goals. Very few people could navigate their way to the nets like van Hooijdonk could and the man who would go on to win a UEFA Cup with Feyenoord and represent his country 46 times left with respect for his football ability even if his wages dispute lost him respect for his off-the-field attitude. As the striker said in an infamous radio interview in 1997 about his wages at Celtic:

"£7,000 may be good for a homeless person, but £7,000 a week is not good enough for a top class forward..."

Well, van Hooijdonk obviously knows a bit when it comes to self-worth but he seems to know the importance of not overrating yourself either. It's been a bloody brilliant World Cup to date, genuinely made even better by England's rise. Where once the non-England-supporting public took pleasure in their demise on the global stage, there's a buzz in the air that the realism that swept the country for a few weeks is being kicked off as they put their feet up and marvel at their World Cup contenders. That can only mean a bigger fall than we've been used to since 2006 - the last time they won a knockout game at a major tournament. The hype - even though they tried their best - still began before the World Cup, in fairness. Where once the question was always whether or not England could win the thing, this time the narrative went something like: "no-one's expecting England to win the World Cup, so there's no reason why they can't..." https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/1011534784999411713 But a last-minute goal to beat Tunisia and a brushing aside of Panama hasn't impressed everyone. Especially not Pierre van Hooijdonk who took the liberty of digging a little bit into the calibre of opposition that Gareth Southgate's men have beaten. He even compared the England hype to Tiger Tim. https://twitter.com/pierrevh17/status/1011142790091288583 He did get to plenty of semi-finals though.