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SPL July 2011
Scottish Premier League News July 2011: Celtic Head Down Under On Pre-Season Tour
Ali Morrello
Celtic
Neil Lennon's Celtic side have already begun their preparations for the new SPL season by heading Down Under for a pre-season tour of Aussie.
25-year-old defender Kelvin Wilson, who signed a Bosman with the club in January, has jetted out to team up with his new team-mates and he is desperate to make an impact at Parkhead.
The player admitted that there were a few eyebrows raised when he quit England to move to the unfancied SPL, but he believes that the opportunity to play in front of 60,000 fans every week along with a chance to play European football is a step in the right direction.
"It will be staggering," he said. “Two of the three pre-season games are sold out already. That all comes with joining a massive club - and Celtic is that," he said. “I'll have to get used to it - and quickly. This is a step up for me.
"People might argue the point, but you've got the pressure of having to win every game here and I want that. People who know football know why I've come here - it's a massive, massive club.
"I don't get defensive about what others might say because it's not people within the game who are saying these things. The stick about moving to the SPL wasn't too bad - not to my face anyway."
Meanwhile, Kenyan internationalist Victor Wanyama's move to Celtic for a €1.1 million transfer fee has been accepted by his Belgian side Germinal Beerschot, with Germinal sporting director Chris van Puyeveld has assured Celtic manager Neil Lennon that he was landing 'a real diamond'.
But the move may be scuppered by work permit regulations due to the low Fifa ranking of his country, Kenya. Kenya is ranked in 130th in the latest Fifa ranking, which is way below the 70 ranking that the country yields for players who are signed to play in their league.
But Celtic are confident they can convince an appeal panel that Wanyama, who has played for Kenya for five years and who represented them in all six World Cup 2010 qualifiers, has the quality to merit a permit.
Last night, van Puyeveld was confident the deal could happen in the next 24 hours, pending the work permit decision, and he has no doubt the combative Wanyama will earn Celtic a major return on their investment.
"You can never say it's a done deal until it's absolutely done, but I don't expect any problems with this move," he said.
"Victor is an excellent player, a real diamond and a very good guy as well. I have no doubt Celtic will be pleased with him and he'll be a big success in Glasgow. I'm sure his value will rise a lot during his stay."
Wanyama is Inter midfielder MacDonald Mariga's younger brother.
And Lennon has also revealed that he will reject any approaches for captain Scott Brown as he bids to tie the midfielder to a new contract. The Scotland international is out of contract at Parkhead next northern summer and has attracted interest due to his strong displays last season.
Lennon said: "We opened preliminary talks with Scott at the end of last season. He's on record as saying he wants to stay at Celtic and that is something I'm very pleased about. I'm hoping to get him tied down. I wouldn't be surprised if there's interest as he was magnificent last season. "I'd be unwilling to sell him and I'd rebuff any offers."
Rangers
New Ibrox supremo Craig Whyte has appointed the former Scottish Football Association chief executive Gordon Smith as Rangers' new director of football. Smith, who served the governing body from 2007 to 2010 before resigning for personal reasons, won the treble with Rangers in 1978. He spent three years at the Ibrox before leaving to join Brighton.
Smith will work alongside the manager, Ally McCoist, in his first season in charge and will be involved in the club's transfer policy as well as overseeing scouting and the Academy. Whyte, has also appointed former QPR commercial director and deputy managing director, Ali Russell, as director of operations and commercial activity.
Whyte has wasted no time in putting in his own men since taking charge last month and said: "I'm delighted that Gordon and Ali are with us and I think they will be key appointments for us. Gordon has a wealth of experience in football administration from his role with the SFA and his contacts in Uefa. He has a great Rangers background, having been a key player in the 1970s for the club, and I'm sure the fans will be delighted with his appointment.
"Gordon will be running things at Murray Park but he also has a good knowledge on the commercial side which is a great benefit. He will be working with the scouting set-up and also on transfers. Ali did a great job at QPR and he will be working with the management team we have at Ibrox. Due to my many business commitments I am unable to work at Rangers every day, so Ali will be carrying out that aspect of things."
Smith's tenure at the SFA was a turbulent one, with the appointment of two managers - Craig Burley and Craig Levein - and the infamous 2009 disciplinary incident involving Allan McGregor and Barry Ferguson, who has not played for his country since.
And Smith himself has insisted that there is no lingering problem between him and McGregor.
The goalkeeper has since returned to the national team under Craig Levein. Smith said: “One of the first people I met here last week was Allan McGregor.
"We were chatting away and I said to him that it had been brought up in the newspapers about the Boozegate thing. It was an SFA board decision and we had to go along with that."
Meanwhile, striker Nikica Jelavic is happy with life at Rangers and plans to stay for at least one more season after committing himself to the club.
The Croatia international had been linked with a move away from the SPL champions despite only joining Gers last summer in a £4million move from Rapid Vienna. The 25-year-old's prolific displays have seen him tipped to head for pastures new in the summer, with a move to Manchester United mooted in some quarters.
But Jelavic is eager to build on last season's success when Rangers held off the challenge of Celtic and claimed the title for the third year in succession. "There is no rush for me to go anywhere as I am only 25 years old," he said.
"Next season the least I want is to repeat the success from last season. There is plenty for me in Glasgow and I am very happy.
"It was super the way I was accepted by the club, as well as fans, and I will stay at least one more year."
Scotland
Mark Wotte has set his sights on bringing some Dutch flair to the Scottish national side after being appointed as the SFA's first performance director. The 50-year-old Dutchman will be in charge of overseeing elite player development at every level.
SFA chief executive Stewart Regan said: "The appointment of a performance director was the single most important recommendation in the Henry McLeish review of Scottish football.
"The remit is to take Scottish football from good to great once again, by planning a route from grass roots to the senior national men's and women's teams and creating a "best v best" culture.
"I am delighted Mark has accepted this challenge and myself, Craig Levein, Campbell Ogilvie and the board are confident Mark's coaching and performance experience will help realise our ambitions."
Wotte has coached extensively in his native Holland, including a spell as technical director of Feyenoord and a stint in charge of the Holland Under-21s and believes that Scotland boss Craig Levein has the right level of passion to drive the national side forward.
"I was surprised by the commitment Craig showed about the future of Scottish football,” he said. "It was kind of similar to when I worked with Louis van Gaal with the Dutch FA as Under-21 and Under-19 coach.
"Back then he asked how many hours I spent being the national manager - of course there is a very limited schedule, maybe one fixture every four or six weeks. So he said, 'Why don't we start thinking about the future? Try to set up some strategic projects to improve the future of football in Holland?'
"I saw the same dedication in Craig. It's not all national coaches who are interested in youth - they are interested in winning games which is the most important thing for him and for Scotland at the moment. It was one of the reasons I got a good feeling about this job.
"It's rare for this to be the case. I've seen national coaches working in many countries and they don't care about the future. I can understand it because they're under pressure to qualify but a national team coach has a lot of time to do something in return for a good salary."
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