DEILA’S DAY IN THE SUN
Departing boss and his ‘champions’ celebrate
Not for Ronny Deila is there any messing around with stuffy officialdom. The whistle had barely sounded on Celtic’s 3-1 win over Hearts when the Hoops boss was calling for good food, strong beer and red wine – and in that order.
“Five-in-row doesn’t happen many times and we have to enjoy it and I enjoyed it– I can assure you of that,” smiled Deila.
“I feel fine, I feel very happy and proud as well. It’s a tough job, especially in the circumstances of the last few weeks.”
Celtic claimed their fifth successive league title, the club’s 47th league championship, on Saturday afternoon at Tynecastle, whether the history books record it as having been won there or not. Neither the Celtic manager nor his players paid much credence to the fact that arithmetically, if not plausibly, they could still falter.
It was a little subdued, but still they enjoyed their moment as they frolicked with their own supporters in the Edinburgh sunshine. And so they should have. The criticisms which suggests the champagne ought to have been drunk dry by now and that these final games of the season should have been runabouts are justified.
And, yet, as the football community egged on Leicester to what is seen as the greatest fair- ytale south of the border, it seems fair to point out that teams with substantially bigger budgets – Manchester City’s is more than four times that of the Midlands club – can trip up
he bottom line is that Celtic, however falteringly, have managed to get themselves over the line.
And having achieved a fifth successive title, they are entitled to feel that they can go and celebrate it. It is, after all, only the third time in the club’s history they have enjoyed such a sequence of league championships; between 1903-09 under the tutelage of Willie Maley, between 1966 and 1974 under Jock Stein, and now under the combined stewardship of Neil Lennon and Deila.
Lennon will always be a favoured son for the service he gave and the heart-on-the-sleeve passion he brought to the field as well as the dug-out but Deila, for all the flak he has taken, will be assured a welcome whenever he decides to return to Glasgow.
No one will quibble that it has been anything other than a tough season for the club to endure either domestically or on the European front. Changes are imminent, changes that are necessary if the club wish to consider themselves a team capable of competing in the Champions League.
But the received wisdom that sweeping changes are necessary to the playing staff might not tell the truth entirely. This Celtic side have not won too many admirers for their brand of football, but they have lost only three league games this season; in the last decade that particular stat has been bettered only once.
“It’s important that everyone was there to celebrate,” said Deila. “The staff and the players – as they have all been a part of this. The biggest challenge this club has is unity because when you are winning and winning, everyone wants you down from the throne and wants to split you.
“If you get split into individuals, then everyone can be break down, but if you stay together – the supporters, players and the rest of the club – then we are so hard to beat, and that’s what we showed today.”
Deila, though, is bowing out with grace. The Norwegian has shown tremendous dignity in the face of trying circumstances but has accepted criticism, protected his players and spoken only well of the club he is soon to depart. The commitment to get the job done against
Robbie Nielson’s side was commendable and even when the hosts pulled a goal back through substitute Abiola Dauda to cancel out the enigmatic Colin Kazim-Richard’s decent opener, there was still a feeling that Celtic had enough about them to take the game back to Hearts – a sense of spirit that has been seen only in flashes this season.
That they got their noses back in front owed much to some calamitous defending that allowed Patrick Roberts to restore the advantage before, inevitably, Leigh Griffiths added a fine third.
Deila has insisted, however, that he doesn’t want his players to take their foot off the gas for the final three games.
“I want to go out well and I want to go out with the players playing well and with a smile on their face,” he said.
Celtic fans of a certain age will tell you that while the club may not be exactly be where all would want them to be, a league title is something to savour.