Ronny Deila is a manager who splits the Celtic support. Some believe he was never really backed in his attempts to build his squad and implement his vision, whilst some will point to the transfers he did attract being somewhat sub-standard.
Meanwhile his views on modern training methods, very much the norm today, were reportedly rejected by senior players at the club. Yet conversely the younger talents who did pay heed arguably cost Celtic very little and gave us much in turn. Both financially in the case of Kieran Tierney, and as long-term top-level performers in the likes of Tom Rogic and Callum McGregor, who Deila inherited but also patiently developed.
Deila won two league titles and was the first Celtic boss to qualify from the Europa League group stages, yet some of the European performances were bordering on embarrassing, even against Scandinavian opponents you may have assumed Deila would have a handle on.
And bar the second half of his first season in charge, the football on offer was often poor leading ultimately to his mutual agreeing with the Celtic board his time was up at the end of that season, after losing the Scottish Cup semi-final to theRangers, who were a division below Celtic at the time.
The chances are the Celtic job was just too much too soon for Deila, who having initially been earmarked for the assistant manager’s job, suddenly found himself in the hotseat as the Celtic board, perhaps in the absence theRangers from the top flight, struggled to secure their top targets.
For Deila however, as reported in Glasgow Times it was the footballing culture in Scotland that he admits to struggling to cope with and something he feels weighed more heavily towards results than it did respect’
“In Scotland, the culture revolved around fear and results. I don’t believe in that. I believe in respect. You get that through two things – knowing what you’re talking about and treating people right.
“With a reign of fear, you can put everyone on edge, yes. But that will only yield short-term results. If I start calling someone names, there is a chance that they will react angrily, we will clash and we will grow even further apart.
“If I tell you that I am disappointed in you and explain why I was not satisfied, we can get somewhere. I felt like I kind of lost myself at Celtic. I had no room for movement. I am not a 9-5 guy. I work hard and am structured, but at the same time there is craziness in me. I need to be able to go out and have a drink with friends.
“I felt like I had to constantly look back there. It was like I had gone from the first year of primary school straight to the last year of secondary school, it felt like that. I am proud of how I did there, but I felt I had skipped steps. That’s why I went back to Norway, to Valerenga.
“There I was watched extra closely again because I was that coach who had worked at a top foreign club. I started behaving the way the outside world wanted me to behave. That’s dangerous because if you are not true to yourself, you lose your credibility. That’s why New York City and even the first lockdown came so handy for me. For the first time in 25 years, I could think about who I was and I got new energy.”
And Deila, in an interview with a Belgian newspaper, insisted winning trophies wasn’t his main aim at Celtic. He pointed out: “I’ve never been too focused on winning prizes. I like projects. That also attracted me to Standard Liege. At Stromsgodset, my first club as a manager, getting better was the motivation and eventually, the prizes came naturally. Then I went to Celtic, where winning was mandatory.”
Ronny Deila has gone on to have a good management career since leaving Celtic, firstly with Valerenga and then with New York City and now Standard Liege. But as he admits himself, a project – and the time to see that through – is something he needs in which to operate, and at Celtic he didn’t really get that.
Yet perhaps he should have. After all, if Celtic were ever going to make a success of such an approach, then a league without theRangers and even without any Edinburgh opposition to contend with at times may have been the ideal time.
However, Deila is quite right, that’s not the way it works in Glasgow. Winning, as he admits, is very much mandatory and you need to be able to ensure you do that whilst implementing your philosophy over time.
Not everyone can chew gum and walk at the same time however, and Deila – although desperately unlucky not to win a treble, after a dreadfully dubious decision not to award a penalty in the Scottish Cup semi-final with eventual winners Inverness Caley Thistle – clearly struggled with the magnitude of the job, and it would also appear a footballing culture which just didn’t match with his own.
Yet if anyone wants to examine Ronny Deila’s legacy as Celtic manager you only need to look to Rogic, Tierney and of course Callum McGregor. Things may have been very different for all three – and Celtic – had Deila not played such an important role in their development.
Niall J
I always liked Ronny, always seems a top bloke and he’s a legend for winning two of our last nine as far as I’m concerned.
The culture difference between us and Norwegians is obviously a challenge for anyone let alone someone in as high-pressure a job he had, we were extremely lucky he managed to hold it together for so long.
I wish the man nothing but good fortune.
HH