THREE cheers for Ronny Deila.

 

Scott Brown first heard them from a distance when stuck in the tunnel at Pittodrie in November, having been sent-off towards the end of a victory that proved pivotal in changing his manager's fortunes for the better, and knows he will encounter them on several occasions between now and the end of the season should three trophies make their way to Celtic Park, too.

The cheers tend to accompany Deila's habit of making his way to the supporters after a win and punching the air three times. Now an established routine, it created something of a stir in the aftermath of that 2-1 victory over Aberdeen, earned through a last-gasp goal from Virgil van Dijk, and seemed ever so slightly contrived.

Brown has grown to love it, though. He appreciates the degree of showmanship within Deila - a man, of course, who stripped down to his underpants in front of supporters after avoiding relegation with his former club Stromsgodset - and regards it as an expression of the self-confidence that is absolutely necessary to succeed at a club such as Celtic.

"I laugh at him and enjoy it every time he goes up there with his wee Ronny Roar," smiled the Celtic captain. "You hear the crowd getting going and then you see the wee smile coming over his face and his wee left hand coming punching through.

"It's good how he bonds so well with the fans.

"It takes a big personality to manage here. Neil Lennon was a big personality and a legend.

"You need people like that. You can't come into this job being shy or intimidated.

"You have to have your own philosophy and the manager has that."

Celtic were actually in the midst of a decent winning run when they recorded that victory at Pittodrie. There was something about that afternoon, though, that changed the perception of Deila and led questioning supporters to begin the process of warming towards him.

"I missed the celebrations afterwards because I was in the tunnel, but I did have some celebration in that tunnel," said Brown, who was ordered off eight minutes from time after receiving a second booking.

"It was slowly coming together and I think that afternoon was the icing on the cake. That pushed us on and we knew then that it was all going to come good eventually."

In the wake of embarrassing European defeats to Legia Warsaw and Maribor along with an unimpressive opening to the league campaign, there were, without doubt, a large proportion of observers who believed Deila might be destined for a decidedly short stint in Paradise.

It would be wrong to state this, as yet, has been a golden season. A domestic treble would go a long way towards altering that state of affairs, but Brown puts the campaign's early teething troubles down to Deila's determination to change the style of play.

"I wasn't worried for him," he said. "He wanted a 4-2-3-1 when we had been playing 4-4-2.

"With 4-2-3-1, there are so many more people getting up the park than we were used to. We are now passing the ball short and sharp with a good tempo.

"It suits our game with the players we have brought in.

"During the week against Kilmarnock, we put two up front and John Guidetti and Leigh Griffiths did well.They created chances for each other and it shows we can chop and change as well."

Deila's initial insistence that he wanted his players to be fitter, banning chips from the menu at the club's Lennoxtown training ground, was widely seen as a slight on the previous regime. His predecessor, Neil Lennon, was quick to counter, but both men appear to have made their peace and actually met for the first time at Manchester City's Academy Stadium earlier this week while watching Celtic's development squad in the Premier League International Cup.

"We were talking about our situations at Bolton and Celtic," revealed Deila. "Of course, he knows my role and how this club is, so it was good. It was a nice conversation.

"He was saying a lot of things that I can recognise and understand.

"Maybe in the future, when he is in Glasgow, we can talk more."

Deila has enough to be dealing with ahead of tomorrow's William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final, though, and sees similarities between Inverness Caledonian Thistle, punching well above their weight in third place in the SPFL Premiership, and Stromsgodset.

The 39-year-old led the unfashionable Norwegian side to the Tippeligaen title in 2013 after previously lifting the cup and has challenged John Hughes and his players to keep building on their recent successes the way he did back then.

"Inverness will lose players in the future and it is then how you create the culture that reproduces past performances, but they have done it now for two years and that is very good," he remarked.

Hughes stated a matter of days ago that Celtic playing Kilmarnock in midweek gave his players an advantage. Deila remains wholly unperturbed.

"I say to my players: 'We are the best, we have the best team'," he revealed. "I am not lying to the players.They know it themselves."