Ronny Deila unveiled as new Celtic manager

A WORDLY football man who has travelled extensively to discover more about his trade, it was no surprise to learn that Ronny Deila knew what to expect on being unveiled as Celtic manager yesterday.

Ronny Deila, pictured after the Norwegian Football Cup match against Tromsdalen in Tromsoe. Picture: Getty

“I had a feeling,” he smiled, as he eyed the throng of press photographers and reporters in front of him. There were also hundreds of fans waiting towelcome him in traditional style at the front steps of the stadium.

It wasn’t Roy, as expected a few days ago, but Ronny. The fans seemed more than ready to place their faith in someone few had heard anything about at the start of this week, when it seemed Roy Keane was one word away frombecoming Neil Lennon’s successor.

However, he withdrew from therunning, leaving the way clear forsomeone who first appeared on Celtic’s radar late last year, during negotiations to sign Norwegian midfielder StefanJohansen.

More recently, his name wasdiscussed as Lennon turned hisattention to appointing a replacement for his departing assistant JohanMjallby, before Lennon himself then decided to resign. Would Deila have been prepared to come as merely anassistant? “No, this feels totally right,” he said yesterday, after signing a 12-month rolling contract with the Scottishchampions. “I like to be manager.”

Describing himself as an emotional man, he also sensed that he was at a place he would like to call home when he attended Celtic’s Champions League defeat by Barcelona in October.

Helping underline his interest in player development, something chief executive Peter Lawwell stressed was among the many qualities that made him so attractive to Celtic, Deila – pronounced Dial-ya – had also attended the under-19s game between the sides in the afternoon.

“I was here for the Barcelona game,” he revealed. “I went to see the Celtic-Barcelona under-19s and then I went to the main match too. The day before I was at Manchester City-Bayern Munich, both under-19s and the first teams. That was an unbelievable experience, to be here. The atmosphere, everything.”

He never normally takes pictures, he stressed. But he took them that evening, filming the crowd singing You’ll Never Walk Alone in order to show to his 14-year-old twin daughters, Thale and Live. “I have been a Liverpool fan. But I think it is better here [than Anfield].”

He is honest enough to admit that what he can now look forward to at Celtic Park on Champions League nights, providing he can guide the side to the group stage, is far different to what he has known while manager of Stromsgodset, who rarely play in front of crowds of over 10,000.

But he has garnered experience over seven years as a coach, and tastedsuccess, bringing the league title to Drammen, where Stromsgodset are based, for the first time in more than 40 years.

At Celtic, he must maintain a steady stream of honours, rather than help end a period of famine. He must also learn to thrive in European competition. Quickly.

“The difference here is the atmosphere,” he said. “I cannot say how I am going to react to this. But I am a quick learner.

“You have to learn from experiences, and develop, and that’s what I want. I have to be humble. You can ask me questions about Europe – can I deal with it? We’ll see. I just have to look around me and use my energy on the most important thing and that’s what’s happening on the pitch.”

What was happening on the pitch yesterday had little to do with football. The grass was hidden underneath boards, while scaffolding stretched towards the blue sky, as preparations continue ahead of the opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games.

It was a reminder that Deila’scompetitive Scottish bow will come at Murrayfield, where Celtic are scheduled to play their opening home Champions League qualifying ties.

It is a stressful baptism, and onereason why some consider Lennon was canny to have decided to walk away. If Deila does fail, he won’t be the first to have performed so immaculately at an introductory press conference, only to flounder when he got down to thebusiness of winning football matches.One remembers Tony Mowbray’s consummate performance on hisunveiling five years ago, in the same room.

Deila is aware of what is required; stylish football that is also successful football, while blooding promising players who can make the leap to the Champions League, before earning a profit for the club when sold on.

This is a weighty-sounding brief for a 38-year-old to be handed. Significantly, he is described as “football manager” in official club statements, rather than head coach.

In Norway, he said, they are not used to taking holidays in June, because the season is in full swing, so it is only natural for him to begin work immediately. However, Deila might say farewell to the Stromsgodset fans on Monday, when the club host Haugesund in a league fixture.

Deila seems to operate a lot oninstinct. He was a target for Malmo, the Swedish team, but he was not tempted to go there. Why Celtic?

“It is about the feeling again,” he said. “The feeling that you are wanted, it felt different. It is the philosophy and the values and you feel you can be a part of it. I didn’t say Malmo was bad at that, but I felt ready to come here. This is the right step.

“I think of history, of atmosphere, of passion, of family now, of energy,” he said, when asked what comes to mind when he thinks of Celtic.

There was a flash of vanity, a helpful quality when dealing with modern-day players who are not strangers to self-preening. Asked about the photographs showing him in a state of undress that have been splashed across someScottish papers, he smiled again. “I am not so happy about that,” he said. “I hope I am more fit now than then.”

He was clearly conscious of not being at his most toned when the pictures were taken, after he fulfilled a pledge to strip off if Stromsgodset avoided relegation, five years ago. “I hoped they might have found better angles.”

It provided some levity in the usually serious business of football talk, and the hopes and ambitions of a young manager. If Celtic were to win the Champions League, he promised to strip off again.

Such a glimpse of his madcap side helped explain why some havecompared Deila to Jurgen Klopp, who has made such an impression at Borussia Dortmund. He was asked whether this was a help or hindrance as he himself seeks to make his way in the game.

“I don’t think so much about it,” he said. “I have to be me. I only hope one day someone is known as ‘the next Ronny Deila’.”

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