Celtic have decided to cancel Derk Boerrigters birthday party, and are hoping for a reaction, after hearing of  Yaya Toures tantrum when Manchester city didn’t buy him a car when he turned six the other day.

One would not be wrong to think they’d forgotten Neil Lennons as well, with all this talk of him leaving ;

Neil Lennon heading for Celtic exit door with odds on

Henrik Larsson replacing him at Parkhead slashed

• Neil Lennon’s future at Celtic is in serious doubt
• The Northern Irishman is said to feel he can take the club as far as he can
• Bookmaker Paddy Power slashed club legend Henrik Larsson’s odds of replacing him
• Former Bhoys Malky Mackay and Jackie McNamara have also been touted as possible successors 

This comes from the Daily Mail, and has a little more detail-even in the headlines-than most of the stories on the subject this week.

Now, if you add it to our own Desi monds comment, slipped into the diary comments on Monday

”  Paul Lambert….Malky McKay….Jackie Mac….next up John Hughes, then Paul Hartley and finally Jim McInally.

Silly when we all know he next manager is gonna be Swedish.

oops, I said that out loud didnt I? “

 Then it could be time to sit up and take notice. By the way, its exactly ten years since the last time Larsson played for Celtic…

Desi may have been in contact with one or two of our usual sources , or , of course, he could be one of the usual sources for the Daily Mail…

 The plot thickens, and with no denials or confirmations from Celtic Park, it looks like the papers have got something to keep on about for a week or two.

 Lennon is off on holiday at the end of this week, then he joins the BBC for a stint on their panel in Brazil. I believe his holiday is one of those coach tours, where he will visit West Bromwich, Norwich and anywhere else that dumps their manager in the meantime.

Anyway, Alan Douglas the imaginative Mail hack, continues;

Neil Lennon’s future as Celtic manager is in serious doubt.

Sportsmail understands the Northern Irishman feels he may have taken the club as far as it can go with him at the helm and is giving his position careful consideration.

Understands ? That usually means they are making it up.

Fresh from winning a third successive Scottish league title, Lennon should now be plotting the route to a Champions League group campaign.

But he’s believed to be concerned about having the quality in his squad to negotiate the three tricky qualifying ties that lie in wait  – with the added disadvantage of playing out of Murrayfield as Celtic Park is out of commission due to the Commonwealth Games.

Well, if he wasn’t before, he will be after he reads that. It scares me when he puts it like that.

Speculation over Lennon’s future intensified when bookmakers Paddy Power suddenly slashed the odds on Henrik Larsson – currently in charge of Swedish club Falkenbergs – becoming the new manager.

That does mean someone has just lumped a lot of money on it. Hopefully it was Hugh Keevins, having seen the contract.

However, Hakan Nilsson, sports director of Falkensbergs, told Sportsmail there has been no contact from Celtic regarding the legendary striker.

With Lennon due to fly off on holiday at the end of this week before a stint as a BBC analyst at the World Cup finals in Brazil, the former captain is seeking some answers before he goes.

Er, answers to what, exactly ?

Trusted deputy Johan Mjallby recently quit the club and a decision on his replacement has been shelved until Lennon’s own fate becomes clearer.

Speculation is also rife about the immediate futures of Virgil van Dijk and Fraser Forster and Lennon’s concerns over the squad would be further heightened were either to be sold before they begin their campaign on July 15.

As ever, the headlines differ completely from the content in the story. Its almost as though the author has been trolling the Celtic forums and picked out the most popular debate before adding his own thoughts to it. 

 But what is it they say about smoke and fire ?

Thats right, lie on the floor until the fireman comes. Something, incidentally, my wife completely misunderstood.

Lennon needs to come out and say whats on his mind, and we also need to get some closure on what really happened with Georgios Samaras.

I have a feeling we will hear something very soon.

And it probably won’t involve Henrik Larsson, heaven forbid that he should come back and fail. But, I guess if you don’t try you’ll never know. The  Scottish independence “Yes ” campaign may well have just found another little analogy in there somewhere…

( wee story here. A rangers supporting unionist chap I know is really pissed off about this independence thing. He reckons that “we “-meaning those of Irish descent , couldn’t get independence in our own country, so we came over “here ” and want to take  it from his. Enlightened sort of chap. ” )

 Ordinarily, it would just be put down to silly season paper talk, but its too quiet over there behind the nice new Celtic Way, and like when the kids are playing in another room  and you haven’t heard them fighting for a few minutes, you just know they are up to something.

Still, its not all bad news. Craig Gordon could yet end up at Celtic, but theres no sign of Jordan Rhodes, which would have meant that the Rumour Mill would have scored a unique double, before it actually managed a unique single.

Then theres Stevie Clark being interviewed…..as an assistant manager…at Celtic, that is. Honest. We heard it from a friend, who, heard it from a friend, who, heard it from another they’ve been messing around.

 Todays Diary was brought to you by REO Speedwagon, who now have planted one of their songs in your head, and it won’t go away….

Good news for Leigh Griffiths though, as the SFA decide to postpone his disciplinary hearing until the Police conclude their investigation into his singalongaLeigh stint in an Edinburgh pub. This has alarmed the Police because they had forgotten all about it, and had hoped it would go away, as they have a Commonwealth Games to keep an eye on, and have a wee side in house competition running  on as to which officer can arrest the most amount of tourists under obscure Scottish Laws they made up that morning. And then when the football season starts, they can revert to doing the same to Celtic fans.

 Griffiths may still have something to worry about though, as Inspector Billy McBiggott of the Edinburgh CID is away on a film and sound editing course at the moment, which may be the real reason for the delay…

 However you may view it, at least Griffiths is being held to account for whatever it is he’s supposed to have done.

 Neil Doncaster, the man who has done so much to destroy the image and credibility of Scottish football has been declining interviews, closing the curtains and hiding under his desk instead of telling us why he decided it was sound  business practice to pay a broadcaster to show games featuring a third division Scottish side when the money could have been used to pay off his own contract and send him on his way.

 See if i was at school with him, I’d have had his dinner money every day and the daft sod would be telling everyone how it was the right decision.

Anyway, instead of holding a press conference and telling Scottish supporters face to face how he made an arse of things, he’s sent an open letter to the Daily Record explaining why he thinks he didn’t;

TODAY, football and TV go together like pies and Bovril and the support Scottish football receives from our 
broadcast partners has been crucial to the ongoing health of the game in this country.

Before we continue, lets examine the tv deal, and compare it with the rest of Europe; Seriously, this is what is known as a “must read ” . although its obvious our illustrious  leader and never read it.

SaintinAsia. The Scottish tv deal which is a testament to the negotiating powers of Doncaster when compared with other football association chiefs. Read it ?  Astonishing isn’t it ?

Right,we’ll carry on.

Their eight-figure investment each season makes them a fundamental supporter of Scottish football and is 
of enormous benefit to all 42 of our member clubs, to the clubs’ own sponsors and, of course, to the fans.

Eight figure ? Why not just say how much it is, and how long for ? Then we could all have a chuckle, shake our heads and move on.

Never was the backing of those broadcast partners more important than in 2012, when they supported our game in its hour of need.

Hour of need ? What it actually needed was strong leadership from the governing bodies to tell a certain club and its fans that they were dead. Then we could have moved on.

Given some of the misleading information and rumours circulating this week, it is important that we re-state the facts relating to these hugely valuable partnerships.

It was more than a decade ago that a clause was first built into the then-SPL’s live broadcast contracts ensuring four Old Firm games per season were available to be covered.

A television company cannot dictate who participates in a league. If  Rangers were relegated instead of being liquidated ,  would the SPL have ignored it, and relegated the team above them instead ? Wheres the sporting integrity in that ? Surely the correct clause in the deal should have been ” The broadcasters will be given the first option on any game  at any time “, and sold to them as  a bonus ? 

Therefore, when Rangers ceased to be a member of the SPL, the broadcasters had the right to terminate the contracts immediately. The consequences of the deal falling would have been catastrophic for every team in Scotland – so the absolute priority was working to agree a new TV deal with our broadcasters (and the best possible deal at that).

 The best possible deal ? Paying a broadcaster to show the games. Like i said, I’d have took his dinner money every day, and he’d have told the teachers it was the best possible solution. Presumably because I’d have let him keep his trainers.

Thanks to the willingness of all those round the table, the talks were successful and we renegotiated a broadcast deal which ensured the single biggest investment in our game would continue. As is the norm with any agreement there were conditions on both sides.

Round the table ? Can we be sure that Doncaster wasn’t just serving the food and fetching the drinks, before rolling onto his bak to get his tummy tickled and told he was a good boy ?

One was that the broadcasters would be able to access 15 Rangers games per season for as long as Rangers were playing in a league outwith the top tier of Scottish football. We therefore agreed a deal to buy 15 Rangers games per season from the then-SFL, to provide to the broadcasters.

So, the broadcasters wanted fifteen Rangers games ? So why did they have to be paid to show them ? After all, “the journey back ” would actually have been interesting to tv audiences, if the standard of football was not.

Also, given the broadcasters would now incur increased costs as a result of erecting gantries, building rigging and establishing other facilities at a wide variety of smaller grounds – a significant additional cost compared with the original contract – we agreed to make a contribution to the broadcasters’ expenses.

so they wanted something from you , and you paid them to buy it…..

In effect, the extra costs being incurred to cover games were reflected in a small reduction in the deal with one of our broadcasters.

 did you pay for their petrol to come to the meetings as well ?

To put this into context, the costs of covering the extra games were less than three per cent of the annual value of the deal.

Put this into context. The broadcasters probably borrowed your credit card to pay for their hotels because they told you they forgot theirs, didn’t they ?

To recap, the loss of Rangers to the SPL resulted in a risk of losing a multi-million pound TV deal fundamental to the health of our game. Thankfully, we worked with our broadcast partners to secure their ongoing support and investment, and both sides compromised for the greater good.

Er, where exactly did the tv companies compromise ? 

All this was done to ensure that we had valuable live broadcast contracts retained and in place for the benefit of the professional game, all 42 clubs, their sponsors and, crucially, their fans.

The new club, which was shoe horned into the bottom tier of the league got preferential treatment. TV exposure was needed to help them secure a sponsorship deal. In fact, they were allowed to continue as though they hadn’t just been liquidated, as though they hadn’t just stiffed hundreds of creditors, and as though they hadn’t broken SFA registration regulations over a period of several years .

If   doncaster -no capital letter, he doesn’t deserve one any more- genuinely thought this was for the “benefit ” of the game, I’d hate to know what he thinks would be bad for it.

It was absolutely the right thing to do for the good of Scottish football.

No, neil. the right thing to do  for Scottish football would be for you to clear your desk, hand in your car keys and fuck off out of there.  

But we’ll let you negotiate your own pay off.

Save us a fucking fortune. 

Now, a  new addition to the Diary, one of those occasional bits we put in to try to keep it freah. In our new “Words of Wisdom ” feature,  we try to  highlight the sterling work done by those honourable gentlemen -and ladies-of the fourth estate;

 Today, we feature Chris Jack, of the Evening Times, who gave us this thought provoking insight;

Clubs in League Two and League One have had the financial benefits of the Light Blue legions arriving on their doorstep,  

as he explains the effect of the travelling Second Rangers support over the last two years. A benefit first felt in the northern English city of Manchester a few years ago

Manchester police chiefs left ‘sickened and

disappointed’ by rioting Rangers fans

Across Manchester centre streets were strewn with rubbish, cans of beer and broken glass after 100,000 Rangers fans descended on Manchester for the big game against Russian side Zenit St Petersburg.

An army of council workers will begin moving the mountains of rubbish – but the Rangers’ fans own reputation, and that of the city’s for hosting events – may take longer to clean up.

Hey-not if we get Chris Jack on the job ! 

A young Sean Fallon graced the pages ( pages ?-theres only one ) of the Diary yesterday, and heres another youngster you might know…

Finally its the European elections today, and I’m going to do what I do when the Eurovision Song contest is on.

You see,  I always vote for the weird looking ugly no-hoper who can’t string two words together.

Looks like it’ll be Ed Miliband