Next manager of The Celtic Football Club

I watched his press conference earlier and thought he came across really well - for someone from the same country as Solksjaer.

Today’s press conference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3y0iNsjU7M

I liked SSN asking the Roy Hodgson question with the aim of linking it into their wider England World Cup based reports.

You played under Roy Hodgson at Viking. Did you learn much?

Not really. A bit of defence but nothing about attacking play.

After having a succession of ugly managers, it’s finally nice to get a handsome man in charge. Big Ron is very handsome.

Proddy Forsyth has a ridiculous article today speculating that Deila may not work out because he’s not famous and because Paul Le Guen didn’t work out so why would Deila if he only managed in Norway. One might be forgiven for thinking that there have only ever been two managers in Glasgow or that no club other than the defunct huns ever employed a manager from abroad before.

Celtic beguiled by Ronny Deila, the man from nowhere

It would take a great deal to turn a team from Drammen into a crisis but Paul Le Guen’s failure at Ibrox is a warning

Celtic attempted to lure legends and were rebuffed. Roy Keane turned them down with a characteristic touch of disdain, saying that he would not “take a pay cut for anybody”.

Henrik Larsson was savvy enough to appreciate the need to supplement his managerial experience before taking charge of the club where he has the status of a demigod.

Having reached fruitlessly for charisma, Celtic were beguiled by a man from nowhere, which - with respect to the undoubtedly professional and enthusiastic board and staff of Stromsgodset IF - is exactly where their team was located on the map of Hoops fans’ knowledge of the world game.

Their most notable result in European football was an 11-0 aggregate defeat by Liverpool in 1974. Stromsgodset, who hail from Drammen, Norway’s ninth largest city, are rather more celebrated at home as the team which won the Tippiligaen in 2013, for the first time in 43 years.

They did so under Ronny Deila, a former teacher and something of an exhibitionist, as he demonstrated by stripping down to his underpants and throwing his clothes into the crowd after one victory in 2009. With that in mind, he had better buy himself some spare rigouts because, whatever we will ultimately remember about Deila’s reign at Celtic, he is certainly the first incoming manager of an Old Firm club to be guaranteed to win the Scottish title before a ball is kicked.

But if Deila has, for all practical purposes, been presented with a domestic championship by the absence of Rangers and the disparity of resources between Celtic and every other Scottish Premiership club, his most pressing challenge begins in five weeks’ time when the second round of Champions League qualifiers get under way. Lennon steered Celtic through the same hazardous waters – two rounds of qualifiers and a playoff – twice in succession and spoke with grim eloquence about the pressure of knowing that the consequence of failure would be a season decried as a failure before it had got properly under way.

This is the world Deila now inhabits and it will take time for him to grasp just how surreal it is but a good start would be to slip away for a moment to sit in the main stand at Celtic Park and cast his eyes slowly over the precipitous walls of seats. If he has ever wondered what the 66,000 population of Drammen gathered in one place would look like, Celtic Park on a high-octane Champions League night will provide the equivalent.

However, if there is no European football after August, there are supporters who will head for the hills faster than mediaeval monks tipped to an impending Viking raid.

It would take a great deal to turn a team from Drammen into a crisis but only a handful of lacklustre performances when it matters to achieve the same effect in the east end of Glasgow. Neil Lennon delivered three successive titles, one of them while Rangers were still contenders – and lost one championship by a single point to an Ibrox side under Walter Smith – but there were fans who were never happy with his spotty record in the domestic cup competitions and even before Deila arrived in Glasgow on Thursday night some noted that on the previous evening Stromsgodset had lost the Norwegian Cup final to lower league opponents.

Deila comes with glowing testimonials. Peter Lawwell, the Celtic chief executive, described him as a “progressive, intelligent and modern manager…with a fantastic record in winning and developing a team”.

That reputation, however, has been derived from a single small outfit on the margins of the European game and those who are wary of such a slim volume of reference will cite the example of Paul Le Guen, who won three successive titles with Olympique Lyonnais in the far more demanding French league before arriving at Rangers in the summer of 2006 – and departed the following January as the manager with the shortest tenure ever at Ibrox.

Le Guen never understood the demands of Rangers. Deila, on his first appearance as Celtic manager, certainly seemed to have mainlined a full vial of Hoops tradition when he said: “I know what I want for Celtic and our supporters and that is the best of everything. It is what our fans deserve.”

Still, Celtic will attempt to put insurance in place with the appointment of an assistant familiar with the incessant demands of life at Parkhead, probably their former midfielder, John Collins. Thereafter we will see whether Ronny Deila represents the inspired appointment of a young manager on the verge of a breakthrough - or a gambler’s punt on an unseasoned hopeful.

As for the man himself, Norway boasts a geographical wonder whose name perfectly describes the world Deila has just entered: maelstrom.

Brilliant. :clap:

If Ronny Deila changed his first name to “Ronnie” then Ronnie Deila would be an anagram of ONE IRELAND.

Up the 'ra.

[QUOTE=“Bandage, post: 957651, member: 9”]If Ronny Deila changed his first name to “Ronnie” then Ronnie Deila would be an anagram of ONE IRELAND.

Up the 'ra.[/QUOTE]

That’s why we love you Bandage, Castlereagh for that abuser…

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BposvBhIcAEUXre.jpg

Nice ffew reports on twitter that Giggs will be next Celtic manager.

They deserve the cunt.

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My sources tell me it will be Michael o Neill, gone from 14s to 8/1 today with powers

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My sources still saying Phil Brown.