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Ronny Deila: Nothing Personal, This Is Business

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Ronny-Deila

I am old enough to remember (39 this year; it sounds worse than it is) a lot of Celtic bosses, and I have impressions in my mind of what all of them were like.

My earliest memory is of David Hay, raging on the back page of a newspaper about a dodgy, and corrupt, decision – I think it was a sending off involving He Who Shall Not Be Named – and threatening to take Celtic to play in England.

My view of him, from that moment on, was that he was a no-nonsense guy who would fight our corner, and his.

The next boss who sat in the Celtic Park dugout was Billy McNeil himself, another leader who seemed to be about discipline and leading from the front.

I never saw him as a player, but as our boss I saw glimpses of the man who commanded the field that day in Lisbon.

He was a victim of the Murray spending era and our board’s inability to imagine a better Celtic, probably the first victim.

It’s ironic, and horrible, that the match that finally ended a lot of people’s love affair with the current boss should have come on the day he was honoured in the manner he deserves.

Liam Brady was next, and he came to our club with many accolades as a player but no experience whatsoever as a coach.

His appointment was a bizarre risk, and the only miracle was that his tenure lasted two years.

I liked him, as a man, and I still do; it’s hard not to.

Cultured, educated, decent and phenomenally knowledgeable about the game, he found his niche as head of the Arsenal youth academy, helping to develop their brightest talents.

I remember little about him as Celtic boss except that he was a decent man who knew when the game was up and went voluntarily when he realised things weren’t improving on his watch and weren’t likely to.

I remember the short, and awful, Lou Macari era, a season when our top scorer was the midfielder Pat McGinley, with a little over a dozen goals.

I remember his tenure as being the first time I saw a manager playing senior players out of position, and of him selling Andy Payton to bring in Wayne Biggins. I remember him buying Willie Falconer and garnishing him with the faintest praise of all; “He’s not the best player out there, just all we could afford”, and of him trying to sign us two kids in the army.

Those were not good years.

I remember thinking, watching him on TV once, that this was a guy who seemed to be hopelessly out of his depth, even more so than Brady, and getting away with it as long as he did because we lacked killers in the boardroom.

When Fergus took over that was the ball up on the slates, and not before time.

Tommy Burns was next, and I loved the guy as a person and as a boss and I was so taken with what he tried to do at Celtic Park. He had us playing the right football. He knew the kind of players he wanted and who would entertain the fans. He did everything right except win lots of trophies, and in the season when we lost a single game we’d have won the title but for the lack of a potent goal-getter.

I remember a manager who loved our club more than any of the others, a man who was one of the fans, who encouraged every signing to immerse himself in our culture and history and appreciate what it meant to pull on the Celtic shirt.

Was Tommy harshly treated?

I actually don’t believe that he was.

When Fergus decided he had to go I had no argument with that at all.

He won a single trophy as Celtic boss, a solitary Scottish Cup, and had to be judged on that above all.

As a man, I loved him until the day he died and I cherish his memory now. As a boss, Tommy Burns had some of the best ideas I’ve seen from a Celtic manager but could not realise them and that, my friends, is what matters in a “results business.”

Wim Jansen doesn’t evoke many memories, oddly enough, probably because he was only at Celtic Park for one year, a year in which there were no disasters and only the euphoria of a last day title win that stopped Rangers winning ten titles in a row.

I remember a guy who was pilloried by the media but shut them all up in spectacular fashion, a guy one despicable headline said was the “Worst Thing To Hit Hiroshima Since The Atom Bomb” in reference to his time as the boss of a Japanese side, and who’s curly perm and big beaming smile were soon to adorn flags and banners.

He had the last laugh, the loudest of them all, but he ultimately didn’t get to finish what he had started.

I enjoyed his time at Celtic and I liked his understated style and the warmth he seemed to have, even when dealing with a media who he probably viewed with contempt.

Underneath it was a steely determination, as he proved when he left at the end of that tumultuous term, and a great eye for a player, in particular one sensational Swede, who was his first signing.

Jo Venglos was much like Tommy Burns; a man with superb ideas about how the game should be played, and when they worked – as they famously did in our 5-1 crushing of Rangers at Celtic Park on Lubo Day – the results were astonishing.

He, too, took a battering in the media upon his appointment and he didn’t enjoy success at the club, but he was a decent, genuine, good human being who brought dignity and poise to the job and moved to a role within the club where he paid dividends in spades.

I liked Jo as a man, but as a boss I didn’t mourn on the day he was relieved of his duties, in spite of his sometimes scintiliating football.

He was the “old guy”who had ideas ahead of everyone’s time.

And then there was John Barnes … a guy who proves that stats can be used to cover anything.

His win record is better than that of Gordon Strachan, Wim Jansen and almost the equal of Ronny Deila himself.

There was nothing inevitable about his removal from office at Celtic Park; like Ronny, he brought with him a different managerial style and tactical setup than we were used to and his opening run of wins seemed to vindicate his ideas.

But it all went wrong quickly, and it was clear that night against Inverness that he’d lost the dressing room and wasn’t going to make it.

I remember liking him a whole lot, even if I found his ideas bizarre.

His good start didn’t save him.

His genuine decency didn’t either.

The harsh reality was that Barnes and his ideas were out of place at Parkhead. He never properly rebuilt his managerial career, having a spell as boss of Jamaica and then a disastrous spell at Tranmere. His grand vision was smoke and mirrors. It wasn’t just unsuited to Celtic Park. It wouldn’t have worked anywhere.

Yet I’ve listend to this guy talk about football a thousand times and could a thousand more.

King Kenny took over briefly, and he won a League Cup.

What we’ll remember most about his tenure is the way he dealt with the press, treating them with wholly earned and justified contempt after they’d twisted his words once too often.

He decided then to hold the press conferences where ordinary fans could hear what he had to say, unfiltered by media bias. The hacks reacted with typical petulant fury and hated him even more, but he didn’t care.

I’ve often wondered what would have happened had he got the job on a permanent basis; there was talk of that when the season came to an end.

I would probably have supported it, although when you look at his record – ten wins out of eighteen games with four defeats and four losses – it was even less impressive than that of Barnes himself, who he’d brought to the club and then had to sack in his role as Director of Football.

That experiment was short-lived too, and in the summer he was gone.

Martin O’Neill was next, and he was the Real Thing.

He brought something to the club I hadn’t seen before, in any of the bosses.

Flare, ambition, passion and a drive to succeed that outweighed and outclassed everyone else at Celtic Park.

He famously told Dermott Desmond to butt out when they discussed whether or not Martin should spend a huge chunk of his early transfer kitty on one player – Chris Sutton – and that set the tone for his leadership.

I loved him. I was gutted, as we all were, when he left to take care of Geraldine, his beloved wife.

The treble in his first season, the Road to Seville, the big Champions League nights … he restored our place, not just in Scotland but in Europe.

And yet … he won only three titles out of five, losing two on the last day and whilst I didn’t want him to go there was a part of me that thought we needed to do things a little differently, that he was too wedded to one particular tactical system, that we didn’t seem to be learning anything in our European record away from home … that a change wasn’t a bad thing.

Gordon Strachan might well be the most misunderstood and unappreciated manager of them all, a guy I found myself cursing furiously at times such as when he made the “devil dogs and kestrel cans” comments about his critics amongst the support.

He was arrogant and chippyand a guy who was intolerant of stupidity or what he perceived to be that.

I didn’t always like the man – something, by the way, that has changed, markedly, in recent years and convinces me that what we saw at Celtic was a guy who was just pissed off having to deal, day on day, with half-witted media comments and armchair tacticians who knew less than a hundredth what he does – and there were times when his tactical decisions infuriated me … but I knew what we had, and future books about history will treat him with the respect he doubtless deserves.

He didn’t come to Celtic as one of us, but he left that way and his conduct since has endeared him to me in a way that eclipses how I felt about him when he was boss. He is a class act, a guy who looks back on his time at Parkhead with tremendous affection, and even love.

I never doubted his skills as a boss, even in the bad times.

I knew he was a guy who got results, who built teams and held them together, who liked flair players and could work wonders with a budget. Some of his signings, like Nakamura and Boruc, are cult heroes and amongst my generation’s icons.

Was I sad to see him go?

Yes, and no.

I thought at the time he’d stayed a year too long, that there were clearly issues developing, and that his revolution looked to have run out of gas by the time he actually departed …. but I’ve always wondered, and always will, if he’d have rescaled the heights, and it bothers me that we never found out. It’s not out of the question, and if Martin O’Neill was allowed to lose two titles without his time as boss being percieved with negative judgement I could have lived with Gordon getting more time at the helm.

Everyone I know loves Tony Mowbray, the man, a guy with an enormous and deep warmth and affection for Celtic, a guy who got a chance at his dream job and grabbed it. I supported his appointment because he seemed to tick all the boxes.

He had won a tough and brutally demanding league too – don’t let anyone kid you; the Championship is a bear pit. It’s a great achievement to win that title.

Everything about that appointment was positive.

And yet it turned swiftly into a disaster.

How big a disaster?

Statistically, he’s the third worst manager in our history, with only James McGrory (yeah, that surprises me too) and the spectacularly inept Macari finishing with a worse one.

13 defeats in 45 games, along with 9 draws and Gala bonus codes wasted is a terrible record to leave behind, but I still think he’d have lasted longer but for his face on the touchline that night in Paisley.

That look is what sealed his fate, that of a man who had lost any remaining shred of belief in himself or his plans, who was rabbit-scared and out of his depth.

I was never so pleased to see a Celtic manager depart, for his sake as much as ours.

Getting a kicking in the press every day of the week must be soul sapping and nerve shredding, and he was, and is, too good a man for that.

No manager in Celtic’s history has torn me as much as Neil Lennon.

If there was ever a guy I wanted to succeed it was him, especially with everything he went through, but I don’t do bullshit and whilst his appointment as interim boss was logical and even artful, I was wholly opposed to his getting the job on a permanent basis.

I thought it was an unpardonable risk and one that revealed a reckless streak in our boardroom that still worries me today.

He was billed as a “box office” appointment, but I thought that was nothing more than cheap sentiment designed to disguise the fact we’d hired a guy with no managerial experience prior to taking his first seat in the dugout after Mowbray left.

The same logic will be deployed for the unveiling of Henrik Larsson should that day ever arise without his having a far more impressive managerial pedigree than that which he possesses right now. That, too, will be an act of utter folly and one that will risk ruining the enormous, universal, esteem in which he’s held by our fans.

Neil risked that, and whilst I was never 100% convinced – even with a win ratio that’s the third highest in our history (Ronny’s is fourth) – and thought he underachieved, Neil turned me around in many ways.

Let me be clear on this, I don’t think he’s a great manager and he never will be, but sometimes you don’t need to be great to do great things.

The marriage of Lennon and Celtic was a sound, stable and mostly fruitful one.

Sometimes it works that way. Sometimes it’s just a good fit.

Had he been properly backed by the board, had he been allowed to grow the team that beat Barcelona instead of watching it get dismantled, I think we’d have enjoyed years of solid success. Whatever his issues were, on the night he left I wrote a heartfelt thank you note to him (indeed, my first book is part dedicated to him) for On Fields of Green. I supported that decision, for the sake of the club and for the man himself.

Scotland was going to destroy him.

No manager in the history of our country has ever had to put up with what he did and none would have handled it with such grace and courage.

I am in awe of that and I think he deserved better treatment from our club than to be forced to take apart the team he had built.

No-one, and no amount of spin, will ever convince me that it wasn’t a factor in his decision to leave Celtic Park.

Which brings me to Ronny Deila, and my view on him is well known to everyone who reads this blog and On Fields of Green.

I’ve run out of patience with him as a boss, and my belief in his vision for Celtic is tempered by an impossible to shake feeling that delivering it is beyond his ability. I don’t see it. I don’t see any evidence of it. I see a team that’s getting by – just – against domestic opposition but gets found out when we step onto a bigger platform.

I see a boss who might have lost the dressing room, a guy no longer in charge of his own destiny.

I see a guy on a hiding to nothing, and a club going backwards if he remains manager.

I don’t like what I see, but I can’t deny it to myself and I certainly can’t ignore it when so many of my fellow fans see the same thing.

I like Ronny Deila as a man.

I think he’s got every quality you could want in a Celtic boss. He’s articulate, intelligent, genuine and passionate about the game and, I think, about our club. I would go for a beer with Ronny Deila and probably enjoy myself as much as it’s possible to do. Based on what I’ve heard from his own mouth, about his motivations and the style of leadership he values, I would find interviewing him a thrill, and every bit as inspirational as that speech I saw him give, and which every Celtic fan ought to watch on YouTube, no matter what they think of him as boss.

But when it comes to what’s best for Celtic I feel about as unsentimentally about Ronny as I do about all our others ex-bosses and ex-players.

There comes a time when each has to depart and let fresh ideas take shape, and if I lose no sleep over the sacking of Tommy Burns or the departure of Martin O’Neill I will not concern myself over-much thinking of the many reasons why the Norwegian deserves another year to get it right.

I supported his appointment, wholeheartedly. His successes in Norway were not little things. He built a club from nowhere into one that challenged for, and won, top honours. That is an accomplishment no matter what environment it happens in.

But that achievement was on a smaller stage, and therefore a smaller scale, and there was always a worry that he might get blinded by the lights and overwhelmed by the Celtic job.

I think he is overwhelmed by it.

I don’t think it’s a good match.

I think his vision for our club has already been washed away, and he’s dismantled much of it himself out of caution and fear of this thing swallowing him.

The high line pressing game has been abandoned.

The promise of attacking football has not been kept.

We look ponderous, slow, scared of our own shadow at times and that’s because Ronny senses that to do otherwise exposes us to too great a risk of failure, and he’s terrified of it. I heard him at the weekend claiming we’d lost that game because we’d been “too open” and I dread to think of what that means for our next few matches. We barely troubled the Motherwell goalkeeper, even in the latter stages when we were chasing the game. How can his percieved solution to that be our playing more defensively?

That’s fear talking.

That’s a perfectly human failing, and one I can understand, but it’s intolerable for a boss, and a problem that won’t be solved with time, only with experience, and we can’t afford for Celtic Park to be the proving ground for his ideas going into Europe next year.

None of this is personal.

This is business.

It’s the football business, the hardest business there is.

I knew Ronny would be a risky appointment and I saluted the board for taking that chance, but I also knew that if it failed I would want more than just his replacement.

Football is a game where one group of people – the directors – constantly escape the criticisms and survive the failings the rest of us, fans, players and manager alike, have to live with. Look at what’s just happened at Chelsea; Jose Mourinho has paid for failure with his job, and that’s as it should be because the scale of that failure is unpardonable.

But where does that leave the man who’s had to sack him for the second time?

Abramovich is guilty of being so lacking a plan to move his club forward that he moved his club backwards instead, with consequences many predicted in advance.

The issues that haunted Mourinho in his first spell at the club all returned in spades, as they hurt him at Inter and crushed his ambitions for Real Madrid.

The guy was damaged goods.

The Russian owner took a chance on him anyway.

If Ronny Deila is removed from his post as Celtic boss – and I believe that’s nearly inevitable, whether this season or at the start of next when we fail in another Champions League qualifying campaign – then I would want some of those above him to meet their own responsibilities and leave at the same time.

I repeat; I supported the appointment but knew it was a risk.

The question is; should our board have taken a risk like that instead of getting someone proven in?

That, too, is nothing personal, although I don’t expect you to believe that coming from a guy who’s on the record as staying away from Celtic Park because I don’t like our CEO.

It’s simple accountability and there’s too little of that in the boardrooms.

I don’t want to see any Celtic manager fail and if Ronny Deila wants to tell the world from the moment of his dismissal how unfair it all was I will have a degree of sympathy with that view, whilst knowing that it was certainly the right decision for our club to have taken.

The personal abuse he’s taken from some quarters is unbelievable, although not surprising as much of it emenates from a media that never subjects the “managerial genius” at Ibrox to the same, although he arrived in Scotland with no record of success to speak of and has done nothing thus far to justify all the wild accalim. The entire industry is populated by hypocrites and charlatans, and I understand those Celtic fans who still back Ronny because they think that on some level we’d be throwing his carcass to those wolves and can’t stomach doing it.

In point of fact, I’m beyond caring what they think or write. My feelings about Ronny have nothing to do with them.

So yes, I think some of the criticism has been disgraceful, but only that which gets personal, because this is a good man giving everything he can.

Although it isn’t enough it’s no reason for spite and hatred directed at a guy simply because he’s not quite at the standard this moment requires.

He deserves better than that.

It’s not an alibi though.

I am sorry about that, but this is no time for being sentimental.

It’s the time for action; harsh action, but ruthlessness has its place too.

It’s over to the boys on the board.

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  • Charlie Dornan says:

    Minor correction,James ,Tommy led Celtic to Scottish Cup success in 1995 v Aidrie !!

  • James Forrest says:

    I got there just ahead of you 🙂

    Yep, I was there that day too. Big Pierre. Dreadful game of football, but our first trophy in a while and celebrated like a Champions League 🙂

  • Martybhoy53 says:

    The most pertinent line in your article:……”overwhelmed by the Celtic job.” He talks about a pressing game and high energy with quick one touch football and yet the reality is we watch a boring unimaginative style of play with baffling team selections and “tactics”. I would not give him a penny in the upcoming transfer window as i don’t trust his judgement. It would be better for Ronny to leave and for the sake of our club as we have not progressed. A laughing stock in Europe says it all really.

  • tenerifetim10 says:

    Much as I enjoy this and your other articles , the demise of Celtic doesn’t just lie at Ronny’s door but the Board have to take responsibility too ,surely, for the gradual downgrading and selling of our team assets .
    The Lawwells and DD’s of our Club have failed to back up Deila’s ideas with the right resources and talent – too many “project” signings and speculative investments in a team that needs some longer term ability/stability especially at the back – our biggest issue .
    This witch-hunt of Deila rather than the Board that doesn’t give a toss for the supporters but just the bottom line and the wish for the return of “Them” has to be challenged – putting up a petition for the sacking of Deila is shameful , even more so than the removal of certain Directors.
    They must be loving this deflection away from themselves!
    Time to get behind and support Ronny and perhaps have a go at some of the team lacking in ambition !

  • jd meatyard says:

    A lovely, erudite piece.

    Yes, Ronnie should surely go, but what is the point when the board remain the same?

    We need a board that gives us real guidance yes, but with the same vision as the support – a support that is disappearing from the ground fast.

    Our club is a truly great club, a global club… many things make it so, but much of what makes it so is now history… a long ago history as the years of downsizing continue.

    Someone at the top of our club better bring change, big change if we’re to avoid ‘whatever happened to Celtic’ being a common question amongst world fitba fans.

  • john gordon says:

    very eloquently put james I feel the same, as a human being ronny comes across as a decent man but he is taking our club down a slippery slope his ideas are not working and he has no plan b time for a change .

  • Alex Murphy says:

    I feel torn, his vision is the right way forward, his first UCL qualifying was totally undermined by the Board, even to the extent of playing home games in Edinburgh. This time around the players bottled it, 2 up at Celtic Park vs Malmo, all going well, then crash, Denaya was a bigger loss than VVD, selling our best players every season, no Manager at Celtic has a chance to build year on year, we squander money on projects, not the finished article, I really do want Ronnie to succeed, but the Board have to want it as badly as he and the fans do, we have been shopping at primark since they went bust.

  • Patrick Connelly says:

    For me there’s only one man for the job “Michael O’Neil”

  • kel says:

    ive seen all managers come and go from mr stein but the thing that sticks im my craw about ronny and collins is there tactics or lack of them playing players out of position time and time again but if lawell sacks him he would have to go aswell hes hoping ronny resigns and will use his pals in the media to help him out

  • Nathan says:

    Very well written article, will be posting it on various other Celtic forums.

    The truth of the matter is Ronny Deila has cost the club upwards of £50-60M in about an 18 month period as manager. That is quite simply unforgivable and cannot be allowed to continue further when we are in the current financial climate having to rely heavily on CL money and football to attract a better calibre of player.

    Three chances at the CL in two years and he has failed to see us qualify against quite frankly opponents who shouldn’t be coming close to us when you look at their finances in comparison.

    £40M odd lost through no qualification for CL.

    £4-5M lost through Ronny not wanting a pre-season tour abroad in America or Austrailia due to travelling, in which the club agreed to only to see us miss out anyway on CL football.

    Around £10-15M wasted on players such as Boyata, Ciftci, Scepovic, Armstrong and pointless loan moves for the likes of Wakaso, Blackett, Tonev, Berget all wasted down the drain.

    Still heavily reliant on signings which came in under Lenny’s time as manager and only 1 point clear of Aberdeen at Christmas and could now go behind Aberdeen should they win on Saturday against Inverness. Really by this stage of the season we should be at least 8-10 points clear of our nearest ‘rivals’ which in this case is Aberdeen.

    He’s been given plenty time, double the amount Mowbray was given and doesn’t have to deal with a strong Oldco side in the league and is making very hard work of it when it shouldn’t be the case quite frankly.

    Sorry Ronny but you’ve cost the club enough and it is time for you to go. The match against Hearts should be his last I can’t see the board trusting him with another CL qualifying campaign.

  • Bob Cordial says:

    Clearly not even the best of these managers has the tactical nous, leadership and man management qualities that you seem to think you have. Ever actually managed anything, other than your over inflated ego matey? What an arrogant tosser!!

  • schoosh71 says:

    In that fine list of past managers, there was only two who had a vision of taking taking players from the school yard to Paradise. Tommy Burns initiated it from the teachings of Guy Roux and hopefully Ronny Deila is given the chance and ‘can’ bring it to fruition. The quicker Scottish football gets back to, “whoever can develop the best players, has the biggest chance of success”, the better in my opinion. HH

  • stv1e says:

    considering this is a guy who has won a double (cheated out of a treble ) in his first year, is still in with a chance of a treble in his 2nd year, and has had substantially better players taken from him during or before said quest, i say only this “give him a break” far too many are agreeing with the smsm and the likes of keevins! from Clyde ssb (Sevco Supporters Bus) And the so called supporters that call that show!! are just agreeing for their 2 minutes of fame. Get behind the guy.

  • larry60 says:

    Agree with everything you say here, James. I go back a little further than you but the job in real terms never changes, no matter who the manager is.
    When Ronnie goes I’d like to see one or two of the board go as well. I don’t know about the biscuit-tin mentality, but they have shown nothing but a lack of ambition since The Road to Seville. It’s only been the ability of Gordon and Lenny that’s kept things flowing. More from luck of appointment than from any real insight I would think.
    Well, the time has come for another injection of real cash and the appointment of someone with a proven pedigree in football. Someone who can play the game the right way and has more than a Plan A to rely on.
    People will have their own thoughts on that, but I think we could do worse than the likes of Curbishly. He’s used to small budgets, fast flowing football, has kept unfashionable teams in the English premiership, and seems to get on well with the players. Allied to this his own friendships with seasoned players who, while still fit and well, are perhaps not getting the chance in their own teams they would wish for.
    If not Curbs then someone of similar stature for I don’t believe there’d be many world class managers would lower themselves to work under the constraints this lousy board impose.
    I believe for Celtic to start to grow once more into what we all want to see them be, they must make it clear they are willing to leave this Nursery Club tag behind. They must bring the youngsters through and KEEP the best while letting the rest go for a fee. They must start bringing guys like Sutton and Thompson and Hartson back into the club, guys who won’t be sold on for any fee but will repay by getting us back into proper European football. And that’s just for starters.

  • Robert mcewan says:

    Stv1e at last someone with a costructive comment

  • Tommy Donaldson says:

    Good to see Nathan has joined secco.

  • owen says:

    I agree with everthing you say JP.I don’t like bragging,but I have said from day one the Celtic managers job was way out of Deila’s depth.I said the same when Neil Lennon got the job,and in my opinion the guy that made Lennon was Johan Mjalby.When Mjalby left, it was probably one of the main reason’s Lennon left.

    • edward says:

      If it is time for “ruthlessness” then why are you waffling on the removal of Deila.
      “If Ronny Deila is removed from his post as Celtic-i believe that is nearly inevitable,whether this season or at the start of next season when we fail in the another Champions League qualifying campaign”
      You are so convinced he will fail then he should be removed now and you should sign the petition to remove him like the others.
      This is the time for you to tell the Board he should be removed immediately not it is over to the board

  • BelfastBhoy says:

    I would like to see Ronny given to the end of the season at least and I have won the champions league 5 times in a row with Celtic on Champ manager, so I know about as much as everyone else blasting him in the media 🙂 But seriously give the guy a chance, changes don’t happen over night. We would all like to see the days of spending 6m on a player, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon, unless the SPFL get better tv deals or let clubs show live games on their own web channels for a fee.

    Anyways, I do like what he says and I understand the frustrations of all the supporters, I am one, and felt he should go after our dismal European displays and then when I thought about it a bit longer, I caught myself on. I never once thought after the defeat at the weekend that he should go and was so surprised by the online outpour that I decided to say my part, this.

    Sometimes teams play shit, it happens.. get over it. Player error was as much to play as manager error in our European displays, in fact probably more so as the manager was forced to make changes due to player error.

    Yes some of the signings have underperformed, but what previous manager didn’t have signing flops? I’m sure the guys asked to play out of position on the day, have been tried in that position in training and worked well enough to be tried. It didn’t work, so he has learned something.

    I personally feel we need a good central defender in the transfer window and get rid of a few players on loan or sold. I think we have far too many midfielders and should stick with the strikers we have until the end of the season, unless we’re going to bring in some Brazilian wonder kid!

    Give Deila the rest of the season, If he doesn’t deliver the treble with a team playing the style of football he has led us all to believe in, then we can start to call for his head.. if he does.. then we will have a team that that knows how to play with each other, believes in the manager and more importantly believe in themselves..

  • Bob Cordial says:

    Great to see the support for our manager. Forrest needs to do what he’s proficient (sic) at ie exposing the myth that is Ranjuuurz. His grasp of all things Celtic vis a vis how RD is doing is becoming a PERSONAL issue. Despite his protestations otherwise. Know what Jamesie boy, the big Viking will succeed in taking us forward despite your “informed” agenda. ps: apologies for the poor grammar and syntax. Just oot the pub. However tomorrow that’ll be better, your commentary will still be self serving shite. GIRFUY

  • si says:

    let’s face it and most of us won’t want to admit it but since the demise of rangers our ambitions are priorities have had to change. in that time we have managed to clear our debt and once rangers are back on the league and back due to their own merit and not with the help of the SFA our priorities and ambitions will come back. Okay we are no longer a force in Europe but we are the best team in Scotland and we should be proud of this. we have not had the embarrassed of playing in the lower leagues of Scottish football. Not having rangers in the same league has affected both financially and from a footballing point of view but the club have managed to do many good things out with on the pitch. Look at our stadium for example and the Celtic way we should be proud as supporters to have such a beautiful stadium and infrastructure. Yes on the park things haven’t been great but we were one goal away ( a very late goal) this year from getting into the group of champions league. Let’s face it we aren’t ready for the champions league just as man United aren’t ready to compete in the champions league or win the English premiership after the Sir Alex Ferguson era. the past 18 months for Celtic has been about rebuilding and their are going to be mistakes along get the way as is life. The manager is trying to implement a system and currently it’s evident the some players are not suited to this system and some transfers haven’t worked out but it’s about getting a core in place and when new players come in these players are able to help them adapt to the system. it’s going to take time. let’s be patiently lets be proud of being the best team in Scotland as in years to come we will look back at this time and be thankful we’ve came through it and various through it by being faithful through and through. If u r struggling In buying a present for someone for christmas buy them a ticket for our nrxt home game, let us turn out at Parkhead and make some noise and support Ronnie and the boys. Hail Hail!!

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