Celtic Diary Thursday June 27

Neil Lennon has clarified the clubs stance on the Victor Wanyama ordeal. With the players agent claiming that Wanyama is being held prisoner under the North stand, living only on bread and water, the gaffer obviously felt it was time to put things straight.

“Theres been a lot of talk. We accepted a bid from Southampton, we’ve done nothing wrong. The ball is firmly in his representatives court. We’re unhappy, as we dealt with it as professionally as possible. All we did was accept a bid from Southampton, a very good, progressive club. But there seems to be other parties wanting to block the deal. We felt the money was right for us, a good business deal for the club. Whether it re surfaces again, I don’t know. The fact we accepted a bid tells you we felt it matched our valuation of the player. I don’t know where we are with it at the minute. ”

Sounds like he is sick to death of the whole thing, and just wants to move him on and get his replacement sorted.

But he did offer an olive branch.

” If the deal doesn’t go through, or if it collapses and no other offers come in we will welcome Victor back with open arms. There has not been one day when he has said he is not happy here. He is actualy very happy here. The kid is probably feeling stuck in the middle of things. He hasn’t done anything wrong in our eyes. Its a bit of a stand off at the minute and you hope it can be resolved  in the next week or so.

My own gut feeling is a deal will get done, but I’d like to emphasise that the relationship between me and the player has never changed, and the relationship between the club and the player has never changed. ”

His agent is a bit of a knob , though.

Alright, I added the last bit, but I’m only saying what everyone else is thinking.

Actually, Lennon had quite a lot to say yesterday. He also went out of his way to mention the club policy on buying cheap, selling high- a theory which one would think is fairly essential to any sort of business;

” The policy over the last few years has been to bring younger players in, develop them , and sell them for decent money. ( You can almost hear Shay Given screaming.. ) We have done that with Victor and his representatives feel it is time for him to go….. Its a back handed compliment to the work we have done. ( On the Southampton offer )

We have others who will maybe not be as highly valued as Victor. But I feel we have a couple of nuggets who could go for a lot of money eventually. ”

Oddly enough, the word nugget can also be used as an insult, but here it refers to a little chunk of gold, and not someone of limited intelligence who sits next to you on the bus and shows you his drawings.

At least, I think thats what he meant.

Lennon was also active on Tweeter, or whatever the social media for those who can only construct short sentences is called.

He announced that he was resigned to losing Wanyama, but was happy enough to take Stephen Mouyokolo to Germany for the pre season tour, in order to have another  look at him .

This is the diarys first look at him.

Heres Mick McCarthy having a look at him.

And here he is astounding an opponent with his unique ball control.

I keep seeing the words Oliver and Tebily.

But , who knows, maybe we have unearthed another nugget. He’s a big lad, and doesn’t seem the sort to hide.

Alright, perhaps a wee bit unfair. Lets give him a chance to prove himself.

He seems happy with that.

Gary Hooper is still wanted by Hull, and the media seem to have agreed a fee of around £7m.

Lennon said;

” We had a bid from Hull City which we rejected. Whether they come again, I don’t know. As you were.

No set price, the offer was well below our valuation of the player. We would be very happy for him to stay and if he decides to stay on, contract negotiations may re-open again. He will come to Germany on Monday and will be part of our plans for the qualifiers. ”

And if he doesn’t sign, he can make his own way home, he didn’t add.

One player not for sale is Fraser Forster, according to another tweet by Lennon, which, bearing in mind what the boss has said about Hooper and Wanyama , shows that there is a clear plan in his head for the close season and you get the feeling that he knows exactly what his next move will be should Celtic lose either of their “prized assets ”

Which might explain why he just wants to get it done, and get back to work. It may also be so that he can move for replacements, before the press identify who they are, and other clubs can move on them, as in the case of Alexander Tonev, who at a press conference when he signed   for Aston Villa, asked Paul Lambert

” Who have we got in the Champions League  ? ”

Celtic will install a state of the art Wi Fi network at the ground for next season, which will enhance the match day experience. It will also mean more stewards will be employed as supporters frantically search for their phones after the drunk going to the toilet knocks it out of your hand and sends it spinning on to the lower tier.

Sure its important to keep abreast of technology, and it sounds great to be able to access all that information during the game instead of sitting there and watching it, but theres still no fecking toilets outside for travelling fans and their kids.

Elsewhere in the world of football, Carlos Tevez has joined Juventus, and that has to be a good move for him. He’ll fit right in with the ethos of that horrible , horrible club.

Still, he seems happy enough.

Back in Scotland, praise has to go to Tom English, the Scotsman writer who explained to the hard of thinking exactly what the difference is between the administration of Hearts this year, and the liquidation of Rangers last year. Its on the Scotsman site, and is a well thought out and accurate article. Even though he just couldn’t bring himself to use the word “liquidation ”

Nonetheless, it has provoked fury amongst the hordes of Haedes , and he deserves praise for that alone. At least he has had the balls to say something. In fact, with Channel 4 planning a sequel to the programme about the man with unfeasibly large testicles, centred around the MSM, which consists of several men with no balls at all, at least English will be spared that embarrassment.

Alison Robbie, who works for Radio Clyde, has complained on twitter that the whole issue, released by Charlotte Fakeover,  of Darryl King helping out Rangers is “boring “. Thankfully for her, Charlotte has promised to “spice it up ”  by releasing a couple of emails between Craig Whyte and her colleague at the piss poor station, Lorraine Herbison.

She should be pleased with that.

Finally, the newest club in Scotland have revealed their colours for the new season in this exciting promotional video.

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Notice the sizes its available in. Well, they have to cater for the manager , I suppose.

In 2005, when he left the club, Martin O’Neill commented on who would miss who the most, which finally meant I found a question that defeated all of you, prompting this absurdly childish reaction.

Try this one.

” I was a dumpling at school. I got out just before the exams, and I started work as a motor mechanic. ”

You wouldn’t think it to hear him on tv. Well, not really.

Tom Boyd, who features on our latest podcast with his tales of being a Celt, works a lot for various charities, and if you want to help him with his work, you can donate at the address below;

Theres the Celtic Charity fund, at http:www.celticfc.net/charity/, and his own 1254125 page, https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/tomboyd1

Cheers.