Last night, after a day of utter dead silence from Celtic Park our fans were left in a kind of limbo that is simply unbelievable.
During yesterday, as we waited for information all we had to go on was a strategic leak to the BBC and STV that Deila would be allowed to finish the season.
Someone inside Celtic Park wanted that telegraphed to the press. Rather than show some bottle and give the fans that information through official channels, we were forced to learn the immediate plans from two news outlets which haven’t exactly proven to be our friends in recent years.
The reaction of many Celtic fans to this leak was disbelief.
Deila was going to lead the team in the home game against Ross County on Sunday?
Seriously?
The people who made that decision are in no way connected to the wishes and views of the rest of this Family. Like an arrogant patriarch who believes he rules over people incapable of making their own decisions, their will is everythimg.
We are supposed to simply accept this and be good little boys and girls.
It’s an offensive suggestion, and it was the summit of stupidity.
Deila’s mandate has evaporated. He commands virtually no support amongst the fans, and faith in him has hit literal bottom. The club’s decision to drag this out, and turn it into a Long Goodbye, was unfathomable to many of us, presenting, as we saw it, a grave risk to our title hopes.
Last night this obvious folly was compounded by another strategic leak, this one apparently from someone close to Deila.
The media in Norway now has it on good authority (my guess is that it’s the best authority of them all; the manager himself) that the decision’s been taken and he’s definitely gone. If that’s true then he’s been told this already.
Neither Celtic nor his agent commented when asked last night; in my experience this is a sign that the media has this one right on the money.
Deila has been told by someone senior within Celtic that the gig is up and he’s got no chance of saving his job.
That elevates the decision to retain him for the run-in to a whole new plain of idiocy.
Indeed, as risky strategies go this one is simply unforgivable. A season that was already a calamity now has the potential to turn into a genuine disaster, as we go into a run-in where we’re already staggering vulnerable with a manager who not only knows he no longer has a job but who’s getting his licks in first, who according to the Norwegian press blames people inside the club, the media culture in Scotland and even some of our own supporters.
The less said about that the better.
It may well be that to those inside the club this decision looked very different yesterday morning, but the cat is well and truly out of the bag now.
It seems that Deila’s camp is blaming everyone bar the manager himself and opposition clubs and players, not to mention the footballers at Celtic Park, now know he’s a dead man walking. His authority has been removed at a stroke.
If this is a leak from his own side, it’s in keeping with much that he’s done at the club; it’s a tactical disaster from which he can’t possibly recover.
How much it costs Celtic still remains to be seen.
But it’s pretty clear that allowing him to finish the season is madness.