RONNY Deila last night admitted his failure to improve the Celtic team this season “kills” him – but stressed his decision to stand down as manager had been taken for the good of the Parkhead club.
Deila also told Davie Moyes, the former Everton, Manchester United and Real Sociedad boss who is the bookies’ favourite to succeed him, to have no hesitation accepting the position if he is offered it.
And he dismissed claims that his players – Kris Commons, the experienced attacking midfielder who has repeatedly been left out of his team, in particular – had turned against him in recent months.
Read more: Ronny Deila will leave Celtic at the end of the season, club confirms
The 40-year-old Norwegian has been under growing pressure from supporters this season as a result of unconvincing form domestically and some abject performances in Europe.
His side lost 5-4 on penalties to their Old Firm rivals Rangers in the semi-final of the William Hill Scottish Cup at Hampden on Sunday and Celtic announced on Wednesday that he would leave in the summer.
The former Stromsgodset manager, a surprise appointment two years ago, revealed that his inability to win important games and make the team better had led to his decision.
Deila felt the intense speculation about his future had negatively impacted on displays during the 2015/16 campaign and was concerned it would be an issue next season during Champions League qualifying.
“It has been a tough six months,” he said. “It kills me that I don’t think the team has improved in the last six months. That’s my responsibility.
“One of the reasons we haven’t improved is that we have lost important games and the pressure on me has been more and more. That also affects the players and the whole surroundings. It kills my energy.
Read more: The rise and fall of Celtic's Ronny Deila in his own words
“I feel I haven’t got the results and improvement I wanted. Those two things haven’t been as I wanted and that’s why I have come to this decision. I was thinking this is the best thing for me and the club - to come out now and give everyone an answer.”
Deila added: “Hopefully the club will be going into a Champions League qualifying campaign again this summer and with the two defeats in the two previous years, there would be even more pressure on me and everyone else.
“It is good for the club now to get new energy in for the start of next season. Now we can focus on the last five games. That’s the most important thing for the club and for me, to get the results and win the league."
Deila, whose side is still eight points clear of Aberdeen in the Ladbrokes Premiership table with five games remaining, denied the defeat to Rangers at the weekend had been the catalyst for his decision.
“It wasn’t only that,” he said. “Even if we had beaten Rangers, I wasn’t happy with the performance. It has been overall for a while now. There hasn’t been that energy I need from my teams. Of course, it was a hard blow but it was not the final thing.
“It is specifically because we haven’t had improvement. When the team is not taking steps, you have to look at yourself in the mirror and ask: ‘What is happening here?’ I have tried for a long time, but you can’t keep on going. You have to think about the club as well.”
Several names have been linked with the post since Celtic confirmed that Deila would be departing two days ago including former manager Neil Lennon, Republic of Ireland assistant Roy Keane, Northern Ireland boss Michael O’Neill and ex-Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers.
But Moyes, who has been out of work since parting company with Sociedad earlier this season, is the 11-8 favourite to take over. The Scot, who started his playing career with Celtic back in the early 1980s, has revealed that he will weigh up the options open to him this summer.
Read more: Celtic legend Paul McStay says he doesn't feel sorry for Ronny Deila
Asked if he would recommend to Moyes to take it, he said: “Of course, it’s a fantastic job. I would do it 100 times again if I got the chance, if I ever got the same opportunity. I would never, ever regret it. It’s been unbelievable. It’s a privilege to be the Celtic manager and I’ve done everything I can to make it right.”
Deila introduced a strict diet and fitness regime after arriving in Scotland in 2014 and rumours have been rife this season that several senior players, including Commons, had turned against him.
“The squad has been a little bit too big in the last months,” he said. “That has had an effect because it’s not easy to keep all of them happy.
“But I think they respect me for my honesty and how I want to have things. It’s not like I feel there are big conflicts with anybody. I have no issues with Kris at all. But it has been difficult to handle because of the amount of players.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel