Scottish Premier League News June 2015: Celtic Win the Scottish Title
Lisa Dillon
Celtic
The inevitability of the party did not mute it.
They enjoyed their celebrations when the league title was finally handed over; the tickertape, the music, the dancing, the kids on the pitch. The Ronny Roar. Players and supporters alike drank it all in but the problem is that they will always thirst for more.' Here we go, 10-in-row', they chanted. One done, where's the next?
For now, though, Ronny Deila is entitled to down tools and breathe in. In what has been the most challenging chapter of his career, he can reflect with some satisfaction that he succeeded where at one stage many had expected him to fail.
The glorious end was in acute contrast to the painful beginning when the Champions League qualifiers and even routine domestic games were viewed through splayed fingers by the Celtic support.
"It was no fun,” Deila has since admitted."There was a period when I doubted whether I wanted to do it."
As the Norwegian himself has pointed out, that chilly November afternoon at Pittodrie with the biting wind blowing in from the grey North Sea when his 10-man Celtic side netted a last minute winner to see off Aberdeen turned out to be perhaps the most significant result of his season.
It was where his now trademark celebration was born, an act that came out of an adrenalin fuelled afternoon; a celebration that suggested he knew he'd hooked himself a lifeline.
That was the result that kick-started it for him, with the playing squad slowly, steadily tuning in to catch his drift. Pivotal to that was the influence of Scott Brown.
The absence of the Celtic skipper in those difficult early months of Deila's time cannot be underestimated. Vocal, driven, determined and a natural leader, Brown was as instrumental to the turnaround on the pitch as he was off it.
"He is so quick," said Deila earlier this season in reference to his captain's thick Fife accent."Half the time I just try to laugh at the right moments. But I am getting to understand more."
He certainly understood the importance of his captain, since the midfielder has carried immense influence both on the pitch and in the dressing room.
If Deila privately felt let down when the midfielder was splashed across the front pages of a tabloid newspaper three days before the League Cup final in March, slumped on a dirty Edinburgh street, shovelling down a kebab, he opted to vocalise his discord internally.
By then, Celtic's show of togetherness behind the scenes was far more credible than it had been in the early months of the campaign. By the time the winter transfer window had closed, Deila had got two of his targets - Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong have been seamless additions - but was well on his way to wining over one of the key dissidents.
Kris Commons was a cert to quit Celtic at the turn of the year. Such was the versatile playmaker's belief that he had played his final game for the club that he threw his boots to the crowd at Hamilton in the middle of January, a gesture widely interpreted as his farewell speech.
The player was irked at his sporadic appearances, at the perceived lack of respect for his position within the pecking order of the dressing room. His manager was irritated that he was still not giving enough in training or at games.
A clear the air meeting was held at Lennoxtown. The player's agent met with both Deila and chief executive Peter Lawwell. Commons penned a new deal with the club at the beginning of February and since then has essentially been a mainstay in the side.
As has been his way at Celtic, Commons reserved some of his finest moments for Rangers. The first Old Firm game in three years was held at Hampden in the semi-final of the League Cup and Deila would have found any revival short-lived had he been unable to see off the Ibrox side.
While Aberdeen breathed down their neck and kept the challenge going until April, Celtic were always going to win the league since there are no other teams with the resources to properly fight them for the championship.
That is not a criticism; they can only beat who and what are before them. But it does make it difficult to evaluate just where this Celtic team are.
That they performed admirably against Inter Milan in the Europa League has been offered up by both players and management, yet with a little more conviction and fewer individual mistakes Celtic could have seen off the Italians.
But if Deila is right and his team has progressed and developed both collectively and as individuals over the last 9 months then this summer will be its proof.
It is one thing to lord it over the rest domestically, but quite another to do it in Europe.
Qualifying for the Champions League group stages would be worthy of a party to rival yesterday's; it is by far a bigger achievement to negotiate the perilous rounds of qualifiers in the embryonic stages of the season and land a ticket into the esteemed playground of the UEFA Champions League than it is to win the league.
The bounty for such an achievement is eye-watering. Failure to do so leaves a hangover that can last well into the domestic season.
The party in Glasgow was fun, but the next one is already in the planning.
Rangers
Stuart McCall has not given up hope that he can hang on to the Rangers managerial position despite his side losing 6-1 to Motherwell in the SPFL Premiership play-off final and missing out on promotion.
McCall took over on a short-term contract back in March, had hoped to lead the Glasgow club into the top flight and be appointed on a full-time basis.
However, Rangers have been consigned to another season in the Championship after being thrashed by Motherwell over a two-legged play-off final. The pain of that failure to join their Old Firm rivals Celtic in the Premiership was compounded when Bilel Mohsni, the Rangers centre-half, assaulted Lee Erwin, the Motherwell striker, in incredible scenes after the final whistle.
McCall, who confirmed the volatile Tunisian internationalist will not be handed an extension to his current deal, is hoping he is still handed the opportunity to show what he can achieve with a squad of players he has signed himself.
The 50-year-old interim manager is not the only candidate for the position and Rangers director Paul Murray confirmed last month he would have to undergo a formal interview regardless of how the season finished.
Asked if he felt he had done enough to get the job, McCall said: "That won't be for me. It's for the club to decide on. But of course I want to carry on as manager. It has been an honour and privilege and I feel I can do the job.
"I don't like talking about myself or what I've done or what I can do. But I think my three biggest strengths as a manager and a coach are recruiting people, as I did at Motherwell, getting the best out of people and improving people.
"That's certainly three things Rangers will need next season. Recruitment of players is going to be huge. Alan Stubbs brought a fantastic team in at Hibs. Look at last season and he brought five new players in in January.
"And I look at Ian Baraclough at Motherwell too. He brought seven or eight in here in January - Stephen Pearson, Scott McDonald, Marvin Johnson. They paid money for them and how they finished eleventh with the players they have I will never know.
"I do think sometimes that can be a good thing, bringing eight or nine of your own players in. I think people can remember me at Motherwell when we finished second and lost seven first-team players. They weren't fringe players, but first team. The year after that we finished with 70 points and finished second."
He continued: "We have ten out of contract, maybe one or two will get new ones, and there is a big rebuilding job to be done. There is no doubt about that. It's a good opportunity for whoever comes in. He can remould the group and get the spirit in that he wants it to be.
"They need to get a desire and togetherness back at the club because if you don't have that you are in trouble. We might not have been great all season, we may have had flaws since I have come in, especially defensively, but they managed to galvanise themselves and get to a stage where many people didn't think we would get to. At the end we have fallen short."
McCall admitted that the failure to clinch a place in the Premiership next season would have an adverse impact on Rangers' efforts to rebuild their squad irrespective of who is appointed manager in the summer.
"It was always going to be league dependent," he said. "Players would like to come to Rangers, but if they came up from England then maybe they would like us to be in the Premiership. We had two lists, one if we got promoted and one if we did not.
"There are players who wouldn't want to drop a division and also it wouldn't be as rewarding financially as if we were in the top division. But whoever gets the job, it is an exciting prospect and a challenge to relish because you don't often get such an opportunity to come into this football club.
"Not only are there a lot of players out of contract, some are big earners, so there is a chance to bring good quality players to the club. There will be discussions on that if I do get the job."
Despite the heavy defeat his side slumped to in the second leg of the play-off final against Motherwell yesterday, McCall praised his players for their efforts since he succeeded Kenny McDowall as temporary manager in March.
"Sometimes you need a little bit of fortune in a game and I will not take anything away from Motherwell," he said. "Over the piece they were the better side. But if we could have got the first goal it could have been different. It's ifs and buts. That's football.
"The players will feel low. There will be a lot of them for whom it will be their last games for Rangers today. I remember my last game and said to the lads don't have regrets about it. It wasn't down to effort or desire.
"If someone had said to me I would take it to May 31 when I came in I would have been delighted. I think the players deserve credit for showing togetherness and spirit. We thought we were going to struggle to get that when we first came in."
Aberdeen
Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes has pledged that his team will be fully prepared to offer an improved challenge to Celtic in the Scottish Premiership next season.
Aberdeen forced Celtic to wait until the final week of April before the title was officially won but, crucially, they lost all four league games against Ronny Deila's side. The Dons took 75 points this term - their highest ever tally in the SPFL - and did sustain a challenge but if they are to be taken as serious contenders they need to find a way past the Parkhead side.
"We haven't got the results against Celtic and that's played a huge part in the outcome of our league campaign,” observed McInnes.
"But we'll be ready for them next season and we'll try and improve. Last season we managed to beat Celtic a couple of times but dropped points to other teams. This campaign, we've been outstanding against the other teams. We have a really strong record and we have to be pleased with that.
"But when things are tight at the top of the table - and there was a period when things were tight - it is how you do against the teams in and around you that will decide what happens.
"The two games at Pittodrie against Celtic, where our level of performance was good enough to win the games, we didn't. I think you credit Celtic, because even when they're not at their best, they still find ways to win.
"But I feel as if I have a bit of Celtic in my team at the minute - that mentality. We have shown that against others, even when we've not been at our best. It's important we keep that with us.
"It's also important that when there's a thin line between winning and losing, as has been the case in a couple of games against Celtic, we have to make sure we are the team that comes out on top. It's not always about performances and talent. There are other factors."
McInnes has attracted the attention of Rangers because of his strong season at Pittodrie but Aberdeen will not let him go, assuming that the former Ibrox player would want to head into the Championship.
Aberdeen and Scotland defender Mark Reynolds reckons McInnes, who is contracted to Pittodrie until 2017, will want to remain where he is for the foreseeable future.
He said: "He is looking to build something and I think it would be hard for him to walk away from what he has started and not be there to reap the rewards of the groundwork he has put in.
"He has tied all of his players up to long-term deals and he himself has committed to a new long-term contract as well.
"We all know long-term contracts don't really mean much in football. If a big team comes in with big money then people can move.
"But he's certainly laid the foundations and I think it would be hard for him to walk away from that."
Reynolds added: "We won the cup in his first season, pushed Celtic right into May in the league this season and we have strengthened again for next season. There is no reason we can't push on in the league and do well in the cups as well."
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