The Ronny Deila Story – Celtic’s Bizarre Two Seasons under the Norwegian Manager

An awful lot of water has flowed under the bridge since Ronny Deila was the Manager of Celtic. We now have perhaps the opportunity, having in the meantime seen the very good and the very bad, to analyse Ronny in some sort of historical perspective.

He was the Manager for two seasons 2014/15 and 2015/16. During that time, he won three Scottish trophies out of six – two Premier League titles and one Scottish League Cup, and in the other competitions, he reached the semi-final stage. Semi-final defeats are always hard to take, but one could argue that as one of them went as far as a penalty shoot-out and two others saw Celtic on the wrong end of draconian refereeing decisions at vital stages of the game which swung the balance, we are entitled to say “hard luck”.

Of his two seasons, it is generally accepted that 2014/15 was a great deal better than 2015/16 – yet on both occasions, Celtic ended up the champions of Scotland. And then he was sacked

Ronny’s record in Europe varied from the disappointing to the shocking. There were one or two games that were acceptable, and one that was a brilliant game of football between Celtic and Inter Milan reminding supporters of both teams of better days, but there were also some real shockers against opposition that could best be classed as moderate. Ronny also has the unwelcome distinction of having been beaten TWICE in the Champions League qualifying stages after the first team to beat Celtic were disqualified on a technicality!

Before Ronny arrived however, Celtic were in a strange position. They had won the Scottish League in 2014 (but also inflicted some really sub-standard performances on their supporters in the domestic Cup competitions) and Manager Neil Lennon suddenly left, it still being uncertain whether he jumped or was pushed. No real explanation was ever forthcoming, but the general perception, rightly or wrongly, was a dispute about the budget with the belief that Mr Lawwell and the Board were reluctant to sanction “marquee signings”.

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