GARY MACKAY-STEVEN has been somewhat symbolic of Ronny Deila’s time at Celtic. Consistently inconsistent, the attacker is simultaneously the personification of everything right about the Norwegian’s team and everything that is wrong with it.

Venture on to Celtic message boards to assess his impact as a player during his 14 months in Glasgow’s East End and one embarks on an expedition to the poles – both of them, at the same time. He is invariably described as very useful, a great squad player, a proper footballer and a total waste of space.

Latterly Mackay-Steven has shown signs of a sustained recovery. He says he is rediscovering the kind of form which made him a Scotland international and, on a day when first David Moyes and then Malky Mackay were asked about whether they would be interested in the Celtic manager’s post were it to become available, called the constant scrutiny of his manager unfair not least with the club involved in a domestic double attempt.

Empty seats at Parkhead and a slew of mediocre performances have placed Deila under an intense spotlight but, asked about the criticism of the 40-year-old and Celtic players per se, Mackay-Steven displayed a measured defiance in defence of both.

“It’s a little bit strange, yes,” he said. “It is certainly different but a club of this size and what it has been used to in the past – it has won so much, it is used to winning things every year. Everything is in our hands. We’re all behind the manager here, and he’s certainly behind the players. I think you can take [the speculation] with a pinch of salt. We certainly do as players. We just go about our business and play for the manager.”

Mackay-Steven believes that his game has improved under Deila. While there will be those who scrutinise these things to the nth degree who dispute Mackay-Steven’s assertion, the statistics bear witness to a player who is slowly turning things around after an indifferent start to the campaign. Five goals in his last nine games and a handful of assists attest to a player who is rediscovering his form. At Firhill against Partick Thistle on Saturday, mired in a sandpit of a left-wing for the first half, he certainly passed the eye test, skipping past Gary Fraser and Sean Welsh before scooping a cross out from the byeline to set up Leigh Griffiths for the opening goal. For his next trick, he picked out Callum McGregor for the second after the break and generally positioned himself at the heart of all Celtic did well.

By his own admission – much as his former Dundee United colleague Stuart Armstrong admitted a few weeks ago – he says he has found the transition from the more sedate life at Tannadice to the high-intensity of Celtic Park challenging. But he agrees that he is finally adapting to the heightened expectations that accompany life at the very top of Scottish football.

“It takes a bit of getting used to mentally off the park, the moreso when you know this club means so much to so many people. Everyone is constantly reminding you of this game and that game or what lies ahead. It’s maybe a little different in that side but I wouldn’t say it has been very tough, but it is different to what I’m used to. It’s a rollercoaster.

Just going back to my very first session, what sticks out in my mind is being told it was a medium session, with sessions normally low, medium or high. ‘Oh, right, cool, just break em in, I thought’. And it was the toughest session I’ve ever done - that sticks out. You get used to it and I’ve adapted and got used to it.”

He credits Deila with his incremental improvement, something the Norwegian was specifically brought in to do at Celtic having earned the job on the back of the work he had effected in turning perennial bottom feeders Stroemsgodset into big fish.

“Every manager works on different stuff and this manager has a specific way of training for players in different positions and he works on different things with the boys,” added Mackay-Steven. “I definitely feel I’ve improve and every day is enjoyable. [I’m better] positionally and tactically. Maybe defensively as well, because we do both. I just think in all areas I feel better. And that’s down to him.”