All Roared Out – Ronny’s Two Seasons at Celtic Park

April 21, 2016

DeilaRonny Deila will not be Celtic manager next season. Everyone expected it. Joel Sked looks back at Deila’s time in charge and how the risk failed.

As Tom Rogic’s penalty flew over the bar and into the stratosphere, Dermot Desmond and Paul Lawwell may have taken a rueful glance to their left from their vantage point in Hampden Park. For a moment, the man who possibly attracted their attention let his normal phlegmatic demeanour slip, but just for a second.

Mark Warburton had burst into celebration. But like someone who had just been caught picking their nose and eating it on public transport he swiftly returned to his more measured self as if nothing had ever happened. His Rangers team had just knocked Celtic out of the Scottish Cup with an exuberant and polished performance, even if they had to go all the way to penalties.

In one afternoon Warburton’s team had demonstrated a way of playing that would have made even the staunchest of Celtic fans envious – full of vim and vigour. In less than one year Warburton had embedded his dogmatic philosophy into a club that had stumbled from League Two to the Championship, like a drunk finding his way to bed. Under Ally McCoist, Kenny McDowall and latterly Stuart McCall they eventually pished the bed.

In one season Warburton has achieved what Desmond and Lawwell had hoped Ronny Deila would after his appointment in the summer of 2014. The situations are different, of course. But a lot of what was promised after the appointment of Deila has not been delivered. In two seasons there has been a lack of progression, in fact the club and its playing staff have gone stale, if not regressed, under the Norwegian.

Before the defeat to Rangers it was a tall order for Deila to stay at Celtic Park after another poor run in Europe, another semi-final exit (Ross County) and another mediocre league campaign. If he was to have any chance of keeping his job his team would have had to sweep aside Rangers and lift both the Labrokes Premiership and Scottish Cup comfortably. Sunday’s semi-final hadn’t even reached the half-way mark when this writer uttered the words “he’s gone”, even if Celtic turned the game around.

Prior to the game Deila talked about two teams who want to dominate the game. Only one team demonstrated that during the 120 minutes. Rangers were expansive and confident with the ball and intense without it. There was movement and understanding, organisation and structure. A team. Celtic were passive. They did little to destroy Rangers’ passing game. One player pressed and two players pressed but that was it. Deila roared from the sidelines for his team to push up the pitch and press. But he was shouting into a vacuum, this was a team whose embers were dying off. Individuals making up an excuse of a team. Deila was finished, Wednesday’s statement inevitable.

With a clear run at the Premiership and the opportunities of qualifying for the Champions League it provdes for at least three years, Celtic should have been the upwardly, progressive club. Improving and tweaking all areas of the club from recruitment to youth development. It could have been the time to set themselves up for years of success but it was also the time where a risk or two could be taken. For at least three years (extended to four after Rangers failed to get out of the Championship after the first attempt) Celtic could experiment. They opted for a risk and to experiment with a young, up and coming foreign appointment. Deila came from leading unfashionable Stromsgodet to the Norwegian title.

He talked a good game. And still does. There were the all too familiar buzzwords of attacking, passing, quick football and of fitness; certain foods and drinks were banned at the training ground. Two years on and it appears that was no more than a fallacy. On Sunday Rangers were quicker, stronger and more powerful. The likes of Stefan Johansen and Nir Bitton appeared to be running in a trough of porridge laced with syrup.

Deila did not get off to the best of starts. Celtic were knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers not once but twice. Quite the feat considering Celtic play in the easier Champions route, avoiding teams from England, Spain and Germany. Yet disastrous results in Europe hasn’t been the end of coaches at Celtic. Gordon Strachan and Artmedia Bratislava anyone?

Deila recovered from a dispiriting start which saw only five wins from the first 13 matches in all competitions, leading Celtic into the knock-out stages of the Europa League where they performed admirably against Internazionale. Celtic saw off the fight from Aberdeen to lift the League title, while defeating Rangers in one of the most sedate Old Firm derbies in living memory en route to lifting the League Cup. An attempt at the treble came to a halt following a lack of luck in terms of refereeing decisions.

Deila earned his shot at a second season. Having completed his first year of Scottish football he would be on firmer ground at Celtic Park to make a greater leap forward. Leigh Griffiths had emerged as a key player under Deila, while Stefan Johansen was one of the best players to watch domestically at the tip of a powerful and fearful midfield. That was the ideal scenario, yet there were signs problems may arise.

Virgil Van Dijk and Jason Denayer were set to leave for pastures new. A defence had to be rebuilt and once again the club were on the hunt for a striker to fire them into the Champions League. At one point the club seemed to possess the midas touch in the transfer market. Large fees had been extracted for Gary Hooper, Victor Wanyama, Fraser Forster and Van Dijk. They are the success stories. There has been an incredible wastage. In the last five seasons more than 50 players have come in at a cost of more than £35million (around £16m spent under Deila). For Scottish football that is substantial.

Their wallet was bulging but instead of shopping in Edinburgh’s George Street they ventured into Primark, piling their basket high hoping to get a bargain. While they may have found a three-pack of boxers which have surprisingly fit well and lasted they also picked up a t-shirt which has shrunk to the size of a bra after a couple of washes and a pair of jeans which aren’t very good and racially abuse an Aberdeen player.

How much say he had in the recruitment policy is difficult to determine but few players who have arrived under him have prospered. There was hope that the likes of Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven would benefit from playing under Deila in the same way Griffiths has. However, after an initial positive burst they have simply stagnated. At least they were given time to impress before faltering, the less said about Scott Allan and Ryan Christie the better.

Despite the loss of Denayer and a lack of star quality coming in, Celtic had a flying start to the season as they progressed to the final qualifying round of the Champions League. One of the most positive early performances was a 0-0 in Azerbaijan agaist FK Qarabag. It appeared that Deila wasn’t so wedded to 4-2-3-1 as many thought; flipping the midfield triangle in an archetypal away European performance.

In the first-leg of the final qualifying round Celtic led 3-1 going into the 90th minute. They had one foot in the group stages. Enter Jo Inge Berget (again). Devoid of ability at Celtic Park the previous year, he looked a completely different player, notching his second away goal of the night. They weren’t needed. Celtic were meek in losing 2-0 with the first real show of disgruntlement towards Deila both from fans and players – Kris Commons flying into the rage of a spoilt kid who has just had his Mars bar whipped from his grasp.

Deila had spoken of discipline and professionalism. But that, coupled with Scott Brown’s antics days before a semi-final, appeared to be treated with trepidation feeding into Deila’s nice guy persona. He still comes across well in interviews yet as what I call the ‘John McGlynn/Gary Locke hypotheses’ you can be a nice guy or the hardest working man in football but it doesn’t make you a successful football manager.

There never appeared to be a nastiness about Deila and that fed into the way Celtic played. They lack a fear factor, they lack leadership and they lack bite. And most gallingly they lack balls. They had a chance to destroy a rudderless Rangers last season. They have failed at the semi-final stage three out of four times. They played within themselves when Rangers were able to put up a test. They were drawn in a mediocre Europa League group with Ajax, Fenerbache and Molde. They won zero games.

They’ve held off another title challenge from Aberdeen. But this is an Aberdeen side who should be cursing their inability to make a mark when they’ve had Celtic within touching distance. It is not that they have defeated a vastly improved Aberdeen. Celtic have regressed and Aberdeen haven’t capitalised.

Deila has looked like an interim manager desperately trying to avoid relegation from the English Premiership. Two seasons on and he is none the wiser of his strongest XI from a lop-sided squad, using 34 players this season alone. He should be praised for putting the trust in Kieran Tierney but he has been so impressive that you’d like to think any competent manager worth their salt would see his qualities.

He will lift the trophy in May and barring any calamities in the final five league fixtures he’ll be given a positive send-off from the Celtic faithful. But as soon as he’s turned his back to walk back down the tunnel cheeks will be puffed out all around Celtic Park ‘that was a pretty miserable couple of years’. With Rangers back in the top league and on the up plus a competitive Aberdeen and Heart of Midlothian Celtic could no longer take the risk on a manager whose results have simply not backed up his words.


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