Wanyama reveals talks over Celtic future ongoing

Victor Wanyama, pictured above in action against Dundee United, suffered an injury while playing for his country. Picture: SNS

VICTOR Wanyama has dropped the biggest hint yet that he is set to quit Celtic this summer after revealing there are talks ongoing about his future.

The Kenyan midfielder, currently struggling with injury, is back home to play and captain his country in World Cup qualifiers. But he gave an extensive interview to his homeland television station NTV, in their The Trend programme at the weekend.

The 21-year-old was repeatedly quizzed about whether his future remained with the Scottish champions, after he was linked with Arsenal, Newcastle United, Stoke City and Inter Milan. And despite being reluctant to confirm or deny his footballing plans, Wanyama finally admitted discussions are ongoing on his future.

Wanyama was asked if Arsenal had been in contract with him and he replied: “It’s not a good time to talk about this, but right now I still have a contract with Celtic.

“I’m still their player. If anything comes up that is good for me and good for the club, then I’ll move on.

“At the moment, there are some things. There are some talks going on.

“But I was concentrating on national duty and I left that for my agent, but I haven’t talked with him.”

Wanyama is now rated at the 
£10 million mark, more than a ten-fold increase from the £900,0000 Celtic paid Beerschot in 2011.

He captained his country in their 1-0 World Cup defeat by Nigeria, but suffered an injury that will rule him out of this week’s game with Malawi.

And he admitted he didn’t relish wearing the captain’s armband. He said: “After the game, everyone was angry and down because we lost the game and we didn’t deserve that.”

Celtic will be keen to discover the extent of Wanyama’s injury, especially with Champions League qualifying games due to start in the middle of next month, but when asked about his unspecified problem, the player said: “I can’t tell how long before I can recover. I will have to wait for a scan to know the extent of the injury.”

Kenya coach Adel Amrouche said: “It is unfortunate but Wanyama is out of the match because he suffered a serious injury against Nigeria. We have opted to give him time to rest and recover.”

Meanwhile, Thomas Rogne admits he is likely to leave Celtic this summer. The 22-year-old Norwegian defender has been hampered by a series of injuries since signing for the Scottish champions from Stabaek three-and-a-half years ago and turned down the offer of a new deal in February.

After helping Norway Under-21s beat England 3-1 in their European Under-21 Championship group stage game in Israel on Saturday, Rogne was asked about his Parkhead future.

“I still have a month left on my contract so I haven’t left yet but it seems that way,” he said. “I am just here to enjoy these Euros and then we will see what will happens afterwards. I am not sure about interest from Britain.

“I’ve got no idea, my focus is on Norway and that is all I am thinking about.”