Ronny Deila quotes have found their way into Scottish press reports again and it’s no surprise to read that they concern Celtic.
The Norwegian – who won three domestic honours as manager of the Hoops – isn’t a stranger in harking back to his time with the Hoops.
Deila managed the club between 2014 and 2016, with his reign sandwiched between Neil Lennon and Brendan Rodgers‘ first spells as Celtic boss.
He effectively had a free run at the trophies on offer in Scotland due to Rangers‘ absence from the top-flight and thus provided a lack of competition for Celtic.
But while Deila won the Scottish Premiership twice, he only took one of four chances to lift a domestic cup and that was Celtic’s League Cup triumph against Dundee United in 2015.
And Deila – now manager of Belgian giants Club Brugge – has now made some comments about Celtic that we can pick holes in because quite frankly, they don’t make much sense at all.
Ronny Deila Celtic quotes analysed
Let’s break them down bit by bit. Ronny Deila has essentially been comparing his current spell at Club Brugge to his time with Celtic. He said firstly, as quoted by freelance journalist Mark Walker:
“I’m impressed by the win-every-game mentality here. There is never satisfaction after a victory. It’s a club that has big dreams and is ambitious. After a win, you want to move on to the next match as quickly as possible. In fact, we never feel absolute satisfaction.
“It was different at Celtic. When you start the league season there, you have a nine out of ten chance of winning it. Here the challenge is much greater. I have really liked being in the Europa Conference League and it was one of the reasons why I came to the club. I have learned a lot and had a lot of fun.”
The hole in Deila’s case here is when he first mentions Celtic. Is he trying to suggest that the Hoops don’t have a ‘win-every game mentality’?
Losing twice in a row at a club like ours is a crisis so players who commit to the jersey must understand that going into every game, no matter the opposition, is one you must go out to win.
Is Deila trying to say that wasn’t the case when he was boss of Celtic? Club Brugge are arguably in a very similar position to the Hoops. The Belgian league’s competition at the top might be slightly fiercer than the Premiership but both clubs are expected to win most of the domestic trophies on offer.
His ‘we never feel absolute satisfaction, it was different at Celtic’ comment doesn’t really add up either when judging it against what he is effectively pontificating about his Celtic stint.
As alluded to above, Deila really should have swept away all that was before him as Celtic gaffer with Rangers still on their way back to the upper echelons of Scottish football.
He can’t really say now that he was fully satisfied with his work at Celtic because winning three out of six domestic trophies with Rangers nowhere to be seen isn’t great at all. Which leads us to his second and final bank of quotes:
“At Celtic it was much less the case, because I never felt like I could do or achieve what I wanted to do with my group of players. When I look at the current group of players, I know I can achieve my goals. In Belgium, every game is hard because teams are incredibly good at getting the best out of their squad. In this league, you should never tell yourself that the weekend will be fine. Otherwise, we lose.”
Essentially, Deila is suggesting that Celtic need only have turned up to games under his premiership and win them. Well if that was the case, why did he reach just one out of four cup finals as Bhoys boss?
With the ‘group of players’ he had at Celtic, Deila really should have achieved much more. And what he is now saying contradicts what he said when he was last in the Scottish press.
In September last year, Deila said he wasn’t ready for the pressure that came with managing Celtic when first arriving in 2014 from Stromsgodset.
So was Deila simply not up to winning more honours as Celtic boss – which he should have – or was it that his group of players weren’t ambitious enough?
These latest round of comments just don’t seem to add up and quite frankly, they don’t reflect too well on the former Hoops manager.
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