Scottish Premier League News July 2013: Summer Transfer Speculation
Lisa Dillon
Celtic
Celtic have accepted that Victor Wanyama has all but certainly played his last game for the club. But the Kenyan internationalist's switch to the Premiership looks far from plain sailing, largely due to the dirty war that his representatives embarked on.
Wanyama was the subject of an offer that was in excess of £12m from Southampton, only for the move to collapse because of the additional fees - believed to be in the region of around £1m - that his agents wanted. However, Celtic were happy with the fee on the table and that will be the amount they will allow the player to go for.
Cardiff had a £10m bid rejected, prompting Ivan Modia, one of Wanyama's representatives, to let rip through the media as he launched a bizarre attack on the club. Insisting that the player would not be rail-roaded into going to the first club on offer, he was scathing in his condemnation of the Glasgow club.
"The player will not be forced into a corner to accept the Southampton deal, just because it is good for Celtic," he blasted. "Remember, he has been with the club for two years now - without a pay rise - and has given them wonderful service ever since he arrived.
"Added to this is the fact that by Celtic refusing him permission to join Queens Park Rangers last summer, Victor lost more than £1m in potential salary earnings - yet he just kept his mouth shut and continued to be a model professional.
"Many other players may not have adopted this attitude, in the circumstances. He is currently back in Kenya and hopes that Celtic will adopt a more reasonable approach and take into account the service that he has given the club so far and the rest of these issues.
"Nobody at Celtic can question his attitude and he is hopeful he can leave on good terms with the club. He loves the club and its fans, he's played his heart out for the jersey, but he didn't quite expect that it may end like this."
Celtic boss Lennon, however, insisted that is not the case that the club have always acted in the best interests of the players, although he has accepted that the player won't be at the club next season.
Asked if Wanyama will leave, Lennon said: "I would think it will get done. There is a bit of mud-slinging going on which we feel is unnecessary.
"We have done nothing wrong apart from accept a bid from a club for a player we value very highly. It is not up to us regarding a player's negotiations, personal terms or the agent's personal terms. The club made that pretty clear and I would like to echo that."
And Lennon also refuted Wanyama's claims about both QPR and also about a wage rise.
"Everyone knows that we did offer him a contract extension and we did offer him a pay rise," said Lennon. "But that was rejected. They have been pretty economical with the truth.
"I don't even know if QPR made a bid last season. If they did, then it was nowhere near the valuation we have of Victor, so it never materialised."
Meanwhile, Celtic will play Northern Ireland champions Cliftonville in the second round of the UEFA Champions League qualifiers. The Parkhead side have agreed to switch the ties, meaning that they will play the opening leg at the tiny Solitude stadium - which holds just over 2,500 - on July 17th before hosting the return leg six days later.
And while Lennon is looking forward to a return to his home country, he is wary of the tie since it will be the first competitive game of the season for Celtic.
The Parkhead side are desperate to repeat their heroics in the competition last season when they managed to qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament, but they face three qualifiers before they can even think about the group stages.
"It will be the first time I will have taken Celtic to a competitive game back home so that is something to look forward to," said Lennon. "But we will be totally motivated, obviously, to play as strongly as we can and try and win the tie.
"It's a great draw - a great draw for Cliftonville as well I would imagine. It will create a lot of interest back in Belfast but I am very wary of the tie. I know Gerard Lawlor, the chairman, very well and I know he will be absolutely delighted with the draw, and there will be a lot of familiar faces.
"We have three ties this year and our short-term priority will be to qualify for the group stages, which would mean a lot to everyone associated with the club. I'm not expecting us to have the same impact as last season but you just never know."
Rangers
Rangers have started their preparations for the new season by bringing in a clutch of new players as they aim to take another step on their journey back to the SPL.
The Ibrox side face another slog of a season in the Second Division but with keeper Cammy Bell recruited from Kilmarnock, as well as Jon Daly, Nicky Law, Nicky Clark, Richard Forster and Steven Smith, there should be a freshness about Ally McCoist's side.
Having been at Rangers before, Smith knows what it is all about and the defender knows that the pressures that have always surrounded the club will still be there, despite the lowly league status of the club.
Smith left the MLS after a year with Portland Timbers, but he believes he is a better player than the one who left Rangers three years ago.
"When I was here the first time they went through a time when we didn't sign a player for a number of years," he said. "There were always rumblings in the background that there was stuff going on. There was nothing ever concrete.
"I was in America when it all started to unfold. It was difficult to keep up with what was happening on a daily basis. The club has come through that now and we are more positive and looking forward.
"The manager has brought decent players in and we are looking forward to the challenge. Over there, they couldn't understand how a club that size ended up where it did. The second part of that was why so many fans were turning up to the games in the division that they were in.
"That was the surprising factor for them. When me and Kris (Boyd) left, we realised how big a football club it is. Every ground I went to there was somebody wanting a Rangers shirt signed or a flag. It makes you realise how big the club actually is."
After an unsuccessful stint at Norwich and time with Preston North End and Aberdeen, his time at Jeld-Wed Field was a welcome kick-start to his career.
He said: "I played against guys like Beckham, Keane, Donovan, Cahill, Marquez. There are really good players in the league.
"It was about experiencing a different culture and how they go to games and enjoy it.
"The mentality of the people is different. There is a lot of positivity there whereas here it is a bit negative."
Despite the signings, McCoist would still like to add at least one new striker before the start of the season.
"We could probably do with another centre-forward as well if I'm honest," said the Rangers boss.
"We didn't have the volume of strikers we wanted last season and we lost Fran Sandaza and Kevin Kyle through the campaign too.Lee [McCulloch] did a great job for us as did Andy [Little] but you could argue he's maybe not an out and out centre-forward as he can play out wide and come from a little deeper.
"I think it's important we do sign goal scorers and recognised centre-forwards because one thing we want there which we didn't always have is competition for places.
"The players have to know they must perform or there will be someone waiting in the wings to take their place.There were occasions last year when we could only play one up front and there was an occasion against Queen's Park I think when the one up top wasn't really a striker.
"That's how starved of forwards we were and we are clearly keen to change that as we look to develop a more offensive approach to our game."
Scotland
Gordon Strachan led Scotland to one of their most surprising results in years when he oversaw the 1-0 defeat of Croatia in June in qualifying group A.
Qualification for the FIFA 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil is long gone for the Scots, but the result provided a much-needed shot in the arm for the morale of the squad.
"Some of them don't get a game for their club regularly, some of them have not played for a month," said Strachan. "But they were full of heart and it's amazing what you can do with a group of players who play for each other."
Robert Snodgrass scored the only goal of the game and Strachan has urged the players to take the lessons of the game on board.
"It was a great result and we enjoyed it," he said. "But when I look at it from a coach's point of view, there are one or two things you would like to brush up on. It's satisfying. The lads played from their hearts. They played as a group, 24 of them trained as a group, which made this possible. So we thank them for that.
"I wanted a performance. It was 90% that we weren't going to win. We would like to think that the work that they put in helped. You can't do it if you're not really convinced about doing it and I thought the group themselves were brilliant.
"I really feel pleased for everybody who gets on the plane, who travelled, who were watching. When you're with the national side, the group makes the whole country happy."
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