ERIK SVIATCHENKO checked in at Celtic yesterday after becoming Ronny Deila’s first signing of the January transfer window and warned Scotland’s strikers not to dare view him as a soft touch. The central defender has signed on for four-and-a-half years after Celtic paid a fee in the region of £1.5m to recruit him from Danish champions Midtjylland, although will not feature in this evening’s re-arranged Ladbrokes Premiership match against Hamilton Academical due to a lack of match fitness.

The 24 year-old enjoys an atypical footballer’s lifestyle, revealing an interest in architecture, art galleries, fashion and modelling on his website Close Up and Private. He also deploys his own personal mental strength coach who he hopes will join him in Scotland. The Danish international, though, revealed he becomes a different person whenever he takes to the football field and that it would be wrong for rivals to view him as uncommitted simply because of his hobbies away from the game.

“Some guys like something else, I like art and fashion,” he said. “My family means a lot to me and we discuss a lot of things just to be enlightened about things happening around the world. So I try to keep up. I think it’s good to have some brain activities.

“But I have respect for all guys that do other things. If they perform on the pitch I don’t give a crap [about their lifestyles]. If I’m performing, they will look at me the same way. I will go and visit all the cultural things I can in Glasgow but sometimes I will also enjoy watching a movie or playing a game of FIFA. even though it’s not that often.

“I will never be angry with anyone but when I go to the pitch I will tackle and do things that you maybe wouldn’t think as you see me standing here. It’s not like I’m Ying and Yang or Jekyll and Hyde ... I can switch and I can switch off. But if strikers think I am soft? That would be a mistake. I will kill them. They should see me play some games because they would be surprised.”

Celtic have looked vulnerable defensively this season, in Europe especially, meaning it was no surprise that Deila was glad to have got his man.

“I have known about him for a long time and now was the right time to do it,” said the Celtic manager who also considered the Dane last summer. “I am so happy we have done this deal. He is a very aggressive defender. He’s not the tallest, but is good in the air - he has a good spring. He is a leader, a communicator. He is good on the ball as well, so he has a lot of good attributes. He is quite a modern type. He knows what he wants, he is an intelligent boy. So in that way, he is a little bit different.”

Although signed with a view to making an impact in what remains of this season, Deila revealed that having Sviatchenko arrive now also gives him one fewer thing to worry about ahead of the summer’s pivotal Champions League qualifiers.

“Last year we had players like Jason Denayer and John Guidetti who didn’t stay,” added the Norwegian. “It was a bad time to lose players who had played quite regularly. So that is an important thing this year. We also had the situation with Virgil van Dijk, where we knew something was going to happen. So it gets a little edgy when things are like that. Now, we have many players on longer contracts and we can build some future from it.”

Moving to Scotland has increasingly become a stepping stone for many players looking to eventually further their careers south of the border. Sviatchenko, though, insists he hasn’t thought that far forward just yet.

“I like to be in the present, not making plans too far ahead,” he said. “I make plans maybe three months ahead, so I’m not thinking of the Premier League at all. I want to be the best I can be at Celtic and whatever happens in the future, happens. Eventually, I might become too good for Celtic, but right now, I’m not nearly at the potential I can be and Celtic can bring me to that potential. I have signed a long deal and want to be here as long as possible.”

Deila revealed he hoped there “would be more” signings this month but was coy on Mohamed Elyounoussi’s claim that Celtic had shown an interest in trying to recruit the striker from Molde.

“I can’t comment on names,” he added. “We are into different things and we will comment if anything happens. We have to find the right ones – we are looking everywhere for good options.”