Celtic Diary Wednesday March 20

Anthony Stokes is a “very important player for us” according to Neil Lennon, and will be staying at Celtic. If Gary Hooper moves south then Lennon will “think about” another move for Wolves striker Kevin Doyle.

Victor Wanyama is disappointed that his team mate Efe Ambrose won’t be in the Nigeria team to face Kenya this week, as he was looking forward to playing him at that level. You can only imagine what he has told his team mates.

Theres a couple of barely credible things out there in the world wide media just lately, and it might be wise to take them with a pinch of salt.

First, the Sun claims that the Celtic Story is about to be made into a film, with Daniel Day Lewis in the Brother Walfrid role. Rob Roy director Peter Broughan is said to be involved, but as it was in the Sun its probably better to wait and see. Cramming a hundred and twenty fives years of history into a couple of hours of film isn’t really feasable, but they could probably do one about a much newer club. From Govan way. In fact, I’m sure that club already did a fairly successful pantomime.

Speaking of that club, its not going to be a good couple of days for Sevco striker Francisco Sandaza, who will probably , even as I type this, be down at the mobile phone shop changing his number, although you won’t recognise him, as he will have a hood over his head.

If proof was ever needed that one or two footballers were of less than average intelligence, the dozy forward has been taken in by notrious prankster and taxi driver TommyinGlasgow, who called him live on his radio show pretending to be an agent based in the USA.

You can guess the rest, Sandaza admits to only being at Sevco for the money-not really a crime-but says he is up for a better offer.  More seriously though, Sandaza wants Tommy to send him the contract, and not to let Rangers know. Or he could be in trouble. Well, as long as no-one at the Ibrox club goes anywhere near a computer, a radio or any person who can speak clearly, he should be safe.

Interestingly, it seems that Sandazas contract jumps in value yearly, as of course there was that assumption of consecutive promotions, and reading between the lines , that might explain the panic over there at reconstruction. Theres a mixed reaction to it over on Rangers forums, with some pleased that it ill mean the end of that “wasters ” career at Rangers-well, most of them actually, and others branding it a fake in typical Rangers supporter fashion.

The full call is on You Tube, and is a fine way to spend twenty minutes or so, although you can’t help feeling a little bit sorry for the striker. Well, a bit anyway.

Another blow to the Get Them back in the SPL campaign comes from Mike Mulraney, the Alloa chairman. He has reacted with “mild amusement” to any fastrack plans for Sevco, saying that it would be “lovely if we all got to dictate which league we play in next season.” Still, he conceded that “They are entitled to put forward their case. I am entitled to ignore it.”

The police have released a statement about their tactics at Saturdays Green Brigade march, claiming that any “accusations regarding the police response… are inaccurate.” They have some CCTV footage which will show they were not acting out of turn, and will use that against the 13 who were arrested. They have not put it in the public domain at this point, presumably because they haven’t finished filming it yet.

With questions being asked in parliament, and genuine fears of a move towards a police state north of the border, its perhaps only fair to remind those back there that any party with the word “National ” in the title is sooner or later going to want to rule with an iron hand. It won’t be long before they are advertising for “special investigators, long black leather coat provided”

But the police are looking into those discosures of OldRangers tax information, so its good to see they can prioritise.

The worlds greatest player Gareth Bale will line up against Scotland on Friday night for Wales, and with all the hype you would expect from Sky especially other sources, expect him to score five, set up three and cure cancer during the game.

Scotland need to win to finish as high up the group as possible due to the seedings arrangement, which has led to tough groups recently, and could mean none of us will ever see the national side in the finals of a tournament, although the Euros are expanding next time round to twenty four teams, so there might be a bit of hope yet.

In the Scotland hall of fame there are eight Celtic players. From the answers given yesterday there are still four to go. Correctly named so far are Danny McGrain, Kenny Dalglish, Roy Aitken and Paul McStay. Four to go…..