CELTIC suspended Anthony Stokes for a number of incidents and not just last weekend’s Twitter outburst, manager Ronny Deila revealed yesterday – but he insisted the player still has a future at Parkhead.
The two-week suspension followed comments the striker made after being left out of the matchday squad for last Sunday’s Ladbrokes Premiership game at Inverness. Stokes later apologised for tweeting:
“Buzzing to be brought all the way up to inverness with the team to sit in the stands today, lovely weather for it too.”
Deila, whose side’s match against Hamilton Accies this afternoon will only go ahead if Celtic Park passes a 9.30am pitch inspection, said: “I think everybody understands it’s not about that single incident.
“There have been some issues in the past and now we felt we had to put down a marker. I think that’s going to be good in the end for us and Anthony as well. After 14 days he will come back and hopefully we can keep him working.”
Deila disciplined Stokes last season after he returned late from a trip to Ireland. The player also faces trial next year for an alleged assault on an Elvis impersonator in Dublin in June 2013.
Deila said: “I wouldn’t go into the different issues, that’s between me and him and the club.”
The manager denied Stokes had been treated more harshly than Kris Commons, who started the next game after a dugout rant following his substitution in the first match against Molde.
Stressing Stokes had received previous warnings, Deila added: “I would never suspend a player because of that comment [alone], but it was too much.”
Stokes, under contract for another 18 months, has only played twice this term but Deila insists he can still be part of the first team at Parkhead. “He has a future,” Deila said. “Of coursethere are things that need to improve. If he makes the improvement that we want, everything is possible.”
Deila, who will be without Charlie Mulgrew for six to eight weeks following the recurrence of his thigh injury, added: “If Stokesy didn’t have any ability, he wouldn’t be here. He’s a goalscorer and a great player.
“Everybody at this club gets a lot of chances but we need to see improvement in different aspects and if they don’t do that then we need to use different things to get through to them.”
When asked whether he would look to sell Stokes in January, Deila replied: “That’s a question that is stupid to answer. Every player in this club is in the same situation. He has a contract and he has talent and we want to get the best out of that talent.”
Deila has issued social media guidelines to his players to make sure they are not negative towards the team, club or others, but he accepts that players will become frustrated at not playing.
He added: “There are a lot of good football players [here] who want to play and things will happen when you have ambitious people. But we have to sometimes put a mark on what is accepted and what’s not accepted.”
This morning’s pitch inspection was ordered after heavy rain.
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