RONNY Deila has accused television pundit Steve McManaman of making a "stupid" comment by criticising Celtic for going on a lap of honour after the Inter Milan game.

 

The players went around the pitch to acknowledge their near 60,000-strong support at Parkhead after the 3-3 draw with the Italian giants in the Europa League on Thursday night.

Deila has regularly encouraged his team to recognise their support from the stands after games but McManaman, the former Liverpool, Real Madrid and England winger, criticised them for doing so after a home draw which left them with a mountain to climb in the second leg in Milan next Thursday.

Speaking on BT Sport, McManaman told host Jake Humphrey that Celtic should not make such a fuss about failing to beat a poor Inter Milan team.

But Deila responded firmly: "Steve McManaman was a big player, he was one of my favourites when he was playing, but for me this is so stupid to say. One of Celtic's values is respect. Sometimes when you lose you have to say congratulations to your opponent, that's going to happen, and also when you don't get the result you want and the fans are unbelievable you have to thank them.

"I think the fans appreciate that as well. The fans helped us so much in the game and I think it's important that the players and the staff, everybody, shows they are grateful for what they did for us."

The game was the first time Celtic have played to a home full house since Deila became manager and he was especially impressed when supporters chanted Craig Gordon's name within seconds of his bad mistake at Inter's third goal. That response had lifted the previously excellent Scotland goalkeeper, said Deila, and helped him make big saves later in the game.

"You saw what he did in the second half, the two or three saves he made were good, and that support lifted him. There aren't many stadiums where that would happen and that's why you have to thank them. For me McManaman saying this is like an 'expert' having to say something to get some headlines."

Deila displayed the usual morning-after-the-night-before signs, and admitted to having had little sleep in the hours after the adrenaline rush of his biggest game at the club so far. There had been a disciplinary issue for him to address before the game as action was taken against Anthony Stokes for returning late from a trip to Dublin at the weekend.

"It was an internal thing," said Deila. "It was a small thing but it was something." The matter was now over, he said, but he then sounded cool towards Stokes when asked if the forward would return for tomorrow's home game against Hamilton. "We'll see. If he's good enough, he will be."

Celtic ought to deliver their ninth consecutive domestic victory and maintain their lead in the SPFL Premiership. There is the familiar threat of comedown after the highs of the European tie, of course. Deila said he was mindful of that and would refresh his team accordingly, but inevitably thoughts drifted back towards Thursday and ahead to the second leg in Milan.

Given they conceded three goals at home, and were too open in defence, would they be more compact and tight in Italy? "We will never change. We just adapt. We have to adapt to these things. We have to defend better than we did, they scored with almost everything they had. They were very effective. You get punished at this level. We did some mistakes that we have to take away."

Celtic scored three of their own, of course, and if John Guidetti's 93rd minute equaliser was thrilling, the most impressive contribution of all came from Stuart Armstrong, who scored one and forced Inter's Hugo Campagnaro to put the ball into his own net.

Armstrong arrived at Celtic only last month but Deila claimed that after only three appearances he was already worth more than the near £2 million fee they paid for him. "If we sold him tomorrow we would make a profit on him already. Just to get the Celtic name attached to you, it means you cost a couple of million more. Every player who comes to Celtic will increase in value when they are on this stage and playing in those kind of matches.

"He can become a really good football player. How good? It is a little bit early to say but he has the things I'm looking for. He has talent and he wants to sacrifice everything to be the best he can be."

Only Mikael Lustig and Charlie Mulgrew are injured for Celtic. In October Hamilton came to Parkhead and won 1-0, but both teams are in very different shape now.