RONNY DEILA, the Celtic manager, is confident he retains the backing of the club’s hierarchy but acknowledged that results over the next few months would dictate whether he remains in charge beyond the summer or not. A campaign already marred by failure in Europe took another turn for the worse on Sunday when Celtic were knocked out of the League Cup by Ross County, thus terminating the possibility of a first domestic treble for 15 years. That loss has heightened pressure on Deila ahead of a pivotal Ladbrokes Premiership match away to Aberdeen this evening but the Norwegian believes he retains the trust of majority shareholder Dermot Desmond, chief executive Peter Lawwell and the rest of the Parkhead board to turn things around.

Deila feels the directors “buy into” his long-term strategy for the club and he, in turn, shares their vision for the future. That, however, will count for little if results are poor over the last three months of the campaign.

“I really believe that the club has full faith in me and that the players are behind me,” said the Norwegian, who looked typically relaxed and in good humour despite Sunday’s setback. “But of course things change if you don’t win games. So you cannot say you are going to be here next season. You would never know if we started to lose all the games. If that happens then of course I will not be here next season. But I also so confident that we are going to have a good season and win the league. We wanted to win everything – as I said – but the main target is the league so we can again qualify for the Champions League.

“You have to see behind the result as well, of course. [The public and media] have to judge on what they see in the results but people inside the club see more than that and they have to see the whole picture. There are so many aspects to it, so many aspects that I get evaluated on.

“It’s not just the board buying into my project, I buy into theirs, too. They could have driven the club another way but this is the way they wanted to drive it and I buy into that and I buy into that philosophy. It’s about development, it’s about young players, it’s about building up the academy, it’s about a style of play - all these things.”

Deila, the Ladbrokes Premiership manager of the month for January, insisted he felt no additional pressure going into tonight’s game but hoped his players would respond in the best possible way at Pittodrie.

“I feel much hungrier [for this game],” he added. “Of course I do. What people have to understand is that the most disappointed man is the one sitting here. But I have lost games before, and big games. It’s only seven or eight months since it happened the last time [the Champions League qualifiers]. We have to get on with it and bounce back again. The best athletes and coaches go on and turn it around, they don’t go on losing and losing. Everybody can be a manager when things are going well. It’s when things are going bad, that’s when you show what’s in you.”

Deila added two players to his squad on transfer deadline day, signing Patrick Roberts on an 18-month loan spell from Manchester City and Colin Kazim-Richards from Feyenoord on a two-and-a-half year deal. With Erik Sviatchenko arriving earlier in the month, Deila declared himself happy with the business conducted but admitted that it is not always easy trying to find Champions League-calibre players on a tight budget.

“I’m happy with the window,” he added. “I got what I wanted. We said before that we wanted to be stronger after the window and also to get some experience. Erik and Kazim are experienced players. You saw when Erik came on at Hampden that he is a leader, which was a positive. We have also got an exceptional talent in Patrick Roberts. He is something different and that is exciting.

“But there’s so much turnover here. Every time we get a good player, he’s gone. Every time you get a new player in you never know what you are going to get. You take chances in the market because you try and find someone who can be a Champions League player but if you buy Champions League ready players it’s a totally different amount of money. You have to find young player and build a team to get up to that level. For me, it’s tough but it’s also very motivating.”

As Roberts came in, a player born on the exact same day –Aidan Nesbitt – was being sent out on loan to Partick Thistle. Deila admitted it may be some time before the Celtic youth academy is capable of producing a succession of suitable first-team players.

“At Stromsgodset, we didn’t have a very good academy but now it’s good – it took six or seven years. We brought in players that didn’t cost anything and turned them into good players. We didn’t get anyone through for our academy in the first four or five years. There’s a way to go here as well.”