TOM BOYD believes Anthony Stokes should be given one last chance by Ronny Deila because no player should be sold for being passionately silly.

The striker's Twitter rant after being left out of the first-team squad in Inverness - which he subsequently apologised for - did not go down well with anyone.

It leaves Stoke looking rather isolated. A striker whose best days at Celtic seem to be very much behind him and now he has annoyed his manager who, to be frank, had never really taken to the Irishman.

Boyd, perhaps surprisingly, did not jump on the bandwagon of those demanding the players goes. After all, these things do happen at football clubs.

And he didn't mind seeing some passion, even if it he was wrong to make his feelings public.

Boyd said: "I don’t see any reason why Stokes would go. He’s been a great player for Celtic. He was obviously frustrated at the weekend for getting stick for just going up there and taking his wages and that certainly isn’t the case.

"He’s a very committed player for this football club and he’s apologised for what he’s done.

"It will be dealt with. It just shows that he has a passion for the football club. You are paid as a football player. You want to have an impact.

"I was the same towards the end of my career. I sat here and wanted to play football but obviously the manager thought I was rank rotten so he wouldn’t put me on the park. That’s unlike Anthony who’s decent and is going to be available.

"He’s doing the right things. I think he says he’s doing extra training sessions. That’s all you can do.

"The perfect example of that – for so many players like Callum McGregor who’s come in recently – is Leigh Griffiths in terms of the length of time he had to wait for a start.

"Look at him now in terms of the goal-scoring form he’s in and the work-rate he’s shown.

"There will be opportunities. People are frustrated that they are going to places - whether it’s Inverness or any other – because they want to play.

"Everybody wants to play football but obviously the manager picks what he thinks is his strongest team on the day."

Stokes hasn't featured for Celtic since August 22 so it's not as if his weekend exclusion could be deemed a great shock.

Would he be missed if sold in January? No, it must be said.

Boyd, however, believes there is still time for Stokes, who has 18 months of his contract to go, to save his Celtic career.

The ex-skipper said: "Anthony Stokes is a player who is still in the squad so the manager thinks he can do a job. He was on the bench against Ajax and the manager doesn’t just fill up the bench with anyone, it’s tactically thought out.

“We know Anthony can come on and play but obviously he didn’t get on in that game. We know he will still be part of the football club.

"He might fell it’s time to go because players want to play but if he’s still being included in the squad then he still feels he’s got something to give.

“Anthony has shown his frustration in the wrong way but there have been plenty of things that players have done that have been misguided. I remember criticising myself on one occasion.

"It’s just his passion which has been directed in the wrong way.

“He was then accused of just sitting up picking up wages on the bench but he wants to be out on the football park.

"He’s a professional player and that’s the frustrating part because he’s fit and ready but the manager feels he’s got stronger options at this moment in time.

"As a professional player you want to be out on the football park – you want to play.

“That’s a frustrating element because he is fit and ready but the manager obviously feels he has other options – stronger options – and that’s why he is not using him at this time."

Boyd himself has been here.

Back when Lou Macari was manager, the utterly forgettable 1993/94 season, even this most professional of professionals lost the rag.

Boyd revealed: "I felt tactically the manager wasn’t playing the way we could have done.

"I was wrong in doing that and realised that fairly quickly. I just knew when I said it that I was going down an avenue that I shouldn’t have gone down and it stopped.

"It was a game at Motherwell and at the time I was an attacking full back.I could see where he was coming from in terms of the situation we were in.

“We weren’t really that good and he wanted to shore things up as he was more of a defensive manager.

“It went against my natural instincts of the way I played at that time. He was OK with it when we spoke but I knew within myself if was the wrong thing to do."

That was a time when Celtic couldn't even get to a final, or finish third, never mind all this talk of a Treble win not being viewed as something to celebrate.

Boyd said: "The problem is where people are putting expectations and demands on.

"It seems very strange winning the league title, winning the cups, or winning the Treble might not be good enough for the football manager.

"Maybe that’s where we are. We’re also a club that has a great reputation within European football. That’s gone down this season with results.

"But we’ve had worse seasons. I’ve been there!

"If you want to go back to some of the teams that have lost and some of the games we’ve lost.

"From that point of view we can improve and I’m sure we will improve once we start to get that settled backline."

Tom Boyd helped launch the Clover and Dove Ball an event organised jointly between Celtic FC Foundation and St Andrew’s Hospice. It will be held on Saturday, February 13, 2016 at the Glasgow City Hotel.