Rivals’ timid title talk baffles Deila

Celtic manager says McInnes should believe and speak up

RONNY DEILA expressed amazement last night that Aberdeen aren’t more bullish when it comes to articulating their ambitions of pipping Celtic to the Ladbrokes Premiership title.

Title talk remains a dirty word for Derek McInnes, the Aberdeen manager, and his team, even though only goal difference separates the two sides at the top of the Scottish top flight as 2016 begins, and the Pittodrie outfit are essentially unchanged from the group which hung on to Celtic’s coat tails until the last three games of the 2014-15 season.

Such a softly softly approach is certainly at variance with the one which Deila successfully utilised at unfancied Stromsgodset, where he targeted the title every year before finally leading the club to their first Tippeligaen title in 43 years. By contrast, thirty years have now passed since Aberdeen, under Alex Ferguson, claimed the Scottish top-flight title, the last non Old Firm team to do so.

“Every club I coach, I want to win trophies,” said Deila. “I said that every year at Stromsgodset, even when I knew we were not going to win it. But if you don’t set high goals, you will never win the league. You have to say that you want to do it. We said it three years in a row at Stromsgodset but didn’t do it until the last time. Everything is possible if you work in the right way.

“I think it’s important (that the manager says they can win),” added the Norwegian. “We are all here to win something. Everybody remembers Alex Ferguson at Aberdeen. Why? Because he won. A lot of other managers have been at Aberdeen but I can’t name one of them. But I remember Sir Alex because of what he won at Aberdeen. That was a big, big thing.”

Scottish managers since then often keep their counsel, for fear of being held up to ridicule should they be unable to live up to those promises, but the Norwegian feels managers shouldn’t be afraid to look foolish. “Why is that so silly?” he said. “If you say you will win it and don’t do it, so what? There is only one who can do it – there will be nine or ten other losers, not just you. But if you don’t say it and think it then how are you going to do it? You have to believe. Why do you play football? There is no point going around saying, ‘I can be number four.’ Who remembers that? It is all about winning things.”

Compared to Stromsgodset, whose Marienlyst Stadion holds less than 9000 punters, the Dons, and Hearts, are giants of the modern game. “I think Aberdeen is a very big club,” said Deila. “After Celtic and Rangers they are huge. They are not smaller than the big clubs in Norway. They have 20,000 people watching them, they are a big, big club. So I can’t see why they shouldn’t go for trophies. The title, everything – cups as well. Everything is possible. History has shown that they can do it. They have done it before.”

“In Norway we won the cup first,” he added. “We took silverware and then there was a new step. In the end we made it and it was a great achievement but Stromsgodset are not even close to being as big as Aberdeen. And for me there are a lot of other clubs – Hearts is a very big club as well. They are in a big city and so are Aberdeen. So I can’t see why they should be so different.”

While Celtic’s visit to Dens Park was a casualty of Storm Frank, Aberdeen missed a further opportunity to capitalise when they were held to a goalless draw by Partick Thistle.

While the Maryhill outfit also first foot Celtic today, Deila admits that coping with the pressure is the “hard part” of sustaining a title challenge and wasn’t surprised by the dropped points. The Dons also drew against Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Saturday. “That’s the hard part in football,” he said. “We have experience of being on top, we have demands on us all the time. So there are parts of the pressure at Celtic you are very used to living under.

“I don’t know what Aberdeen are thinking about it, it is very hard for me to say. I haven’t seen their performance against Partick. But to win the league you have to be very consistent, that’s the most important thing.

“I’ve been in football too long, so nothing is surprising,” he added. “You can see all over Europe that it is hard to keep consistency and keep winning. It’s not just a case of just putting boots on the pitch and getting three points. What’s important is that we have to keep focused on what we do. We have to get our three points against Partick Thistle.”

Everything is possible. History has shown that they can do it