Scottish Premier League News October 2015: Celtic Manager Ronny Deila Under Pressure
Lisa Dillon
Celtic
It has been a whirlwind opening few months of the season for Celtic manager Ronny Deila. Like last term, it began in disappointment and it remains to be seen just what the Glasgow side can salvage in the remaining months of the campaign.
Failure to get into the UEFA Champions League group stages left both a sense of frustration as well as a degree of pressure on Celtic. Failure to make it into the elite company of the Champions League for the second successive season under the Norwegian was seen as unmitigated disaster for the club and there was a domestic wobble in results following the defeat to Swedish side Malmo at the play-off stages of the tournament.
The fact that Celtic got to the final hurdle at least guaranteed them a place in the Europa League and it is here, against Ajax, Fenerbahce and Molde that they are attempting to piece together their season and credibility.
They have yet to lose in the Europa League but that notoriously soft centre has been evident in both draws against Ajax and Fenerbahce when Celtic held the lead and upper-hand twice and allowed their opponents to come back into it.
Certainly, though, while Deila was devastated at the lack of Champions League football, he remains upbeat and has insisted that he is not a man under pressure from those above in the Celtic boardroom.
"I think we are going to be in the Champions League while I am the manager," insisted Deila. "We are closer. Hopefully we get another chance next year by winning the league and then we will see. There has been a lot of progress in our team.
"The results have been much better this season but this has been a big setback for me, the whole club and for the players. But you can't feel sorry for yourselves, you have to get up again.
"I don't think smart people judge only on results. People who succeed in life judge progress in many ways. This club is one of the best driven clubs in the world. The economy (finances) is fantastic and there are so many people doing so many good things.
"We are developing players from seven years old to grown up, we are taking in young players and selling them for a lot of money and we win so many titles in Scotland.
"So if you want to be negative, you can but for me it is much more than one thing."
Celtic's failure to land a place in the Champions League was followed by Scotland's failure to land a play-off spot for the European Championships in France next summer.
It means that Celtic's Europa League campaign is the only real environment for Scottish football to test itself at a higher level and Deila believes that Scotland is too focused on results. The Norwegian believes that allowing younger players to fail could in actual fact lead to a far more robust national side which would, of course, help every club in the country.
"It's a lot of pressure in this country on results," he said. "When everyone is doing the safe things all the time you can win short-term but you'll never win long-term.
"I see counties like Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland and they really give opportunities to young boys, they develop them and give them the chance to get experience and develop.
"With the Under-21s Norway has done this for many years now. They were so bad for a period but suddenly now they are coming because the generation, with Stefan Johansen, have been doing well in the Under-21 championship and we also changed our way of playing in Norway and were much more wanting to create.
"If you lose you lose but you want to win in the way you want to play.
"Then you develop more skills and that is the most important thing, to develop good, young football players, then give them a chance and let them play football.
"If it's been too tactical and if you're too afraid to lose then you'll never develop the full potential of the player. That's the way I did it in Stromsgodset, we lost a lot but I knew we would progress all the time and in the end we had a lot of national team players and people going abroad.
"If Martin Odegaard wasn't given the opportunity to play free then we'd never get this talent.
"That's what they do in Spain, Portugal, it's about the training, it's about wanting to create and wanting to get players to get to their full potential.
"Results are very important but I can win one game, short-term, by just being very tactical and thinking this is important.
"But if you're thinking long-term you play the same way you maybe will lose but you'll learn something from the game. So I think that is the way to develop your team and players.
"That is also a very difficult thing here when you have so many games and result pressure is here all the time, then you do the safe things all the time and it's hard to be creative and do new things and develop as a player."
Rangers
Rangers manager Mark Warburton has insisted that it remains possible that both halves of the Old Firm will one day join the English Premiership. Dermot Desmond, Celtic's majority shareholder at Parkhead, rekindled the debate about Celtic leaving Scottish football and becoming members of a British league, something that has been talked about in Scottish circles for more than a decade.
Last February, the English Premier League signed a record £5.14billion television rights package and the huge success of the EPL brand has often been seen as a major stumbling block to any hopes Rangers or Celtic had of a switch.
When asked if he could see a move to England happening, though, manager Warburton said: "Yes. But there is a lot of things to be worked out beforehand. But I think one day it will happen. I think the people will want it because of the draw of Celtic and Rangers and their supports. All the obvious things.
"But I think there are many, many avenues that have to be worked out first. It would need people far more clever than I am to work that one about. But I don't think you would go into a league straight away. Whether you would go into a cup competition first... I don't know.
"I am not sure how they would do that. It's just my opinion. But I think sooner or later it has to be given some serious focus."
The new TV deal will kick in next year and run for three seasons as the money in the Premier League continues to escalate. The levels of finance available to Rangers and Celtic are dwarfed by even lower ranking Premier League outfits as they are overshadowed in terms of transfer fees and wages.
The implications of a switch south would be considerable for both sides and put them on a more level playing field with other major clubs in Europe, and former Brentford manager Warburton believes the status quo in England can only remain in place for so long.
Closer to home, however, Warburton has hailed new head of recruitment Frank McParland as a key signing in his plan to revamp Rangers.
A former chief scout at Liverpool, where he was involved in the acquisition of Raheem Sterling, McParland is leaving his current role as Burnley's sporting director and will formally join the Ibrox club next week.
Rangers have not had anyone directly leading their scouting since Neil Murray left in April 2013.
The Ibrox manager now firmly believes the reunion will be of huge benefit to the Championship leaders as they plan their next steps.
"Frank's qualities are undoubted given the level he has worked at, Champions League level," said Warburton. David (Weir) and I know him very well. He is one of the very best in the business.
"He knows the type of players we are looking for, the attributes we look for, the character of the players we want on and off the pitch. He has a network of contacts. Frank is a doer. He gets the players, is well respected and worked at the highest level. So to get him is a coup.
"At Liverpool there were the likes of Raheem Sterling, Jordon Ibe and many others beside. But Frank is not one to talk about individual names. He has a long career, a long track record of signing some very good players. If we need to add quality to a key area then his job is to go out and find the right players who will fulfil that criteria.
"You live and die by recruitment. Staff members and players, of course. He will be a very important part of the overall project, no doubt about that. We have another two appointments coming shortly. We are making progress in key areas."
Scotland
Another tournament will come and go without Scotland among its representatives.
Gordon Strachan's side were put out of the running for a play-off spot by Robert Lewandowski after the Polish forward condemned Scotland with a 94th minute equaliser at Hampden in a Group D game that Scotland had fought tooth and nail for a result in.
Yet, the damage was not done at Hampden but rather in Georgia when a limp and inept display from the Scots saw them walk away from Tbilisi after losing the game 1-0. That is the points that proved to be utterly critical to their survival within the group and it is that night where the dream truly dies.
It is nearly two decades - France '98 - since Scotland were last rubbing shoulders at a major tournament. However, Strachan maintained that he had seen progress from his team and he had no complaints about the exit.
"You have to hold your hands up and say well done [to Republic of Ireland, who beat Germany to secure at least a third-place finish]," Strachan said.
"We have played against Poland and Ireland and not been beaten. I am hugely disappointed.
"After working hard for a year and at the end of the year for something like that to happen in the last seconds of a game - that's a year's work.
"I can't remember us getting anything lucky. Anything we got has been earned.
"If I'm like the rest of the nation, I am hugely disappointed for the players. The group of lads gave as much as they could give.
"That's what I see at the moment. I feel a bit sorry for them, to have put so much work in and to have scored two wonderful goals.
"I am proud of them. They have been a bit unfortunate."
There were some suggestions that Strachan may step down after the failure to make it to Euro 16, bit former Scotland striker Kenny Dalglish remains adamant that there is no better candidate to take the country forward.
"I think you are off your head if you think you are going to get anybody better," Dalglish said.
"It's always the manager that gets it, isn't it? But why change the manager if you can't get a better one and you won't get a better one?"
Dalglish, who won a record 102 caps for Scotland, added: "I know there will be disappointment that we've not got there but we gave ourselves a great chance. It was a difficult group to get out of, so the disappointment should be overruled by a bit of common sense.
"I think the effort they put in was fantastic when you consider who they were up against. The game they lost in Georgia, in the end, proved to be quite important but one bad game out of eight or nine isn't too bad and I think they can be proud of what they tried to achieve."
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