Celtic Diary Thursday May 7: Deila on Deals.

Sad news today, as we mark the passing of Errol Brown, lead singer with chart toppers Hot Chocolate.

You don’t remember him, do you ?

Yesterday we had Stefan Johansen telling us what we wanted to hear, and seeming to mean it. today it’s the turn of another Norwegian-i’m starting to think my next holiday should be in the land of the midnight sun- to lay his cards on the table.

Ronny Deila.

Johansen and virgil van dijk could be the targets of big money bids from little hope teams south of the border, but the boss isn’t going to listen to them. And he’s told the players why.

“We don’t need to sell them, we don’t want to sell them, so we’re going to keep them here. We want to go into the 
Champions League.

“Stefan has never been in the Champions League and Virgil needs a very good campaign with Champions League football. If he does well there it’s easy to get to the big clubs.

“I’ve said all the time that Virgil is a high class player and should go to one of the best clubs in Europe, not small clubs in England just because they have a lot of money.

“That’s what we want, we want to keep him here and develop him until he’s ready for that level.

“He has more to improve and he can still learn a lot here through the Champions League. He would get more experience and show what a class player he is.

“He has a contract here for many years and we want to improve him. The day we feel the right move is coming for him, and the money is right, then we have to discuss it. But he’s so important for us and I know he enjoys it every day at Celtic.

“We have to think of the best interests of the club as well as his. It’s no problem for him to go to a Champions League club.” 

For those of you who may be concerned, we haven’t heard of any Chief Executives keeling over clutching their chests at this statement.

Deila was asked about a potential bid of £8m for the Dutchman;

“I would say no because we would get that in the Christmas window, maybe more.

“It’s much more money from being in the Champions League and we’d lose one of our best players. It’s an easy thing to talk about.”  

Still no sign of a defibrillator being rushed into the boardroom ?

Well, no. Apparently Peter is onside. ( Unless , of course, Steven MacLean is the referee.)

“Peter would rather go to the Champions League than sell Virgil van Dijk.

“If we don’t make it then okay but then we have to take that decision after, we can’t do it before.

“We both want to get there. We don’t work in a way where he has his interests and I have mine – we have the same interests.

“We want the club to be in a very good way and the Champions League is the best thing for the club.”  

Ronny! What have you done to him ?

First he did the players, then the fans. Has he worked his magic on Lawwell and the accountants ?

We asked Peter if this was the case, but all we got back was this email…

Anyway, who cares how he’s done it. If everyone is singing from the same sheet then perhaps those of us who still believe we are a big club have just had our fire rekindled.

 And thats not a bad thing.

For all the talk of how to put bums back on seats at Celtic Park, thats the one thing that will get season book sales up again.

Ambition. And entertaining football. Okay, two things.

Over to you , Ronny..

“We want to develop the players and keep on playing attacking football.

“We are doing the 
groundwork now but we are going to build the team up even more.” 

In football, indeed in any business, when you are given a management position, it’s usually just the first couple of months when you get a free hand to change things. After that, the enthusiasm can run out fairly easily.

Deila has had to prove himself, and he has.

Theres a feeling we might now get to see what he’s really capable of. And that is an exciting prospect.

Did Deila mention any of the other players ? Yes, he did.

And fans of Charlie Mulgrew will be pleased to hear that the utility man is still wanted in Glasgow.

“I don’t know why anyone would think Charlie wasn’t wanted here, He is an important player for Celtic and he’s staying here.” 

Especially if Izaguirre does play in the Gold Cup….

It’s fair to say most of us would be comfortable enough with Mulgrew standing in for him in the qualifiers.

In fact we hear, as it’s election day today, that Celtic scouts are up and down the country looking for people who can put a decent cross in the box.

And there was advice for anyone thinking of having Guidetti printed on the back of their new tops…

“I don’t think he knows himself what he wants to do. We are very calm with the situation. If he wants to stay then he needs to come to me and say he wants to do it. If not, we have to move on and try to get somebody else.”

“I said to him in February that the offer was being taken away and he has to tell us if he’s changed his mind. It’s not like I need to know because I’m making my plans anyway. We are planning without him,  

Putting all of that together, it looks like Ronny knows what he wants.

Should be an interesting close season.

There was a nasty wee story on STVs website yesterday, hinting that Celtic are looking at a replacement for Craig Gordon, in Molde keeper Orjan Nyland.

Doesn’t sound like Gordon, who has been outstanding in his first season with the hoops, is going anywhere.

“The manager has been brilliant for me, ever since that first game of the season when he handed me the gloves for the match against St Johnstone he has been incredibly supportive. There is no doubt in my mind that I owe him a lot. He has been superb for me.

“He has changed the way the team played and he stressed how much he wanted the team to play from the back. I had never done that at any previous club I had been at and that was a new challenge.

“I have worked hard on that aspect of my game and he always seemed to have a confidence in me that I would be able to adapt to that. Being backed like that by a manager is a good feeling, and it definitely makes you go out on to the pitch and want to play for him and for the team.

“He has had a great first season. There was a lot going on in the summer. He had to try and make his formation work on the pitch and it was a lot of hard work for him getting his message across of exactly what he wanted from everyone.

“I am delighted to see him get his rewards by winning the Premiership and the League Cup.”

Gordon will be here for a while.

And there was a hint that Jason Denaayer could be around next season as well, when he said;

I think Celtic need to be playing in the Champions League, I don’t know if you saw quotes from Lionel Messi in the newspaper saying that he misses the atmosphere of Celtic Park in the Champions League.

“Celtic is a big club and they need to be playing in a big competition like the Champions League. That’s a big compliment from Messi because he is the best player in the world.

“Of course we need to keep the team together at Celtic, though. You cannot change every time when you have been playing with a settled team.”  

For those of us sickened by the recent sales of players every time it looked like we were getting somewhere, theres a lot to be optimistic about this morning.

Elsewhere, they’re closing down the Rangers shop at the airport, and it appears there’s only one thing left behind…

There’ll be more of that emotion today, as Matt Lindsay, the Ibrox fan chief ( is he ? I thought he was a reporter?  -Ed  Lol – Ralph. )

Lindsay tweeted earlier that today -election day-would be a good day for the new club to bury bad news….

Alongside of the carcass of the old club, presumably.

Election Day.

I was going to vote Green, purely so I could watch the results and sing ” come on You boys in Green ” as they came in. But thats hardly a mature and responsible way to decide on the fate of a nation.

And anyway, if reports down here are to believed , it won’t matter anyway as the papers are predicting this if the SNP get the predicted amount of seats in Westminster

And yet, it could have been all decided earlier in the week.

A fourteen year old boy asked Nick clegg, the discredited leader of the Liberal Democrats if he would have the vacuous Katie Hopkins killed or arrested.

Nick said no.

Had he said yes, he’d have been Prime minister in the morning.

Theres always someone to tell you which way to vote.

Even Russell Brand has been offering us advice.

The guy who divorced Katy Perry is offering us advice….

I think we can safely discount his opinion.

One thing I would mention is this. The Offensive Behaviour Act.

There’s a petition for it’s repeal.

Sign it.

Repeal the Offensive behaviour Act

Ronnie Simpson, Gary Player and Jimmy Tarbuck were pictured yesterday at a golf fundraiser, Simpson was showing them a picture of them in yesterdays diary on his phone.

Where’s this ?