RONNY Deila is celebrating his first manager of the month award in Scottish football.

Actually, celebrating is too strong a word. For a man with form for stripping to his underpants and fist pumping in front of the travelling support, this was all rather low key.

"I'm not really a trophy person," said Deila. "They don't mean so much to me. I'm a creator, I like to create things and when you do that and get good results, you get trophies and awards. But this award is a sign that we are doing something good and I'm happy at that.

"There aren't awards for the Manager of the Month over in Norway, but I won the Manager of the Year last season," he added. "The Norwegian football association, the coaching association and the newspapers all have an award and I managed to win them all. I'm sure I'll look back at the awards I've managed to win when I'm older and show them off to my grandchildren."

There were some who suspected Deila may never see his first Christmas, let alone his first manager of the month award, but unless the dreaded curse of the award kicks in, this festive season promises to be anything but a bleak midwinter for the Celtic boss.

Having guided the Parkhead side from their early season travails to the top of the table, with Europa League qualification already secure, he will field a strong line-up in what is a dead rubber in Zagreb on Thursday in order to refine his side's European style of play and help out the flagging Scottish co-efficient.

The continent's secondary club competition has been good for him, but that doesn't mean the training ground coach in Deila can't wait to put Europe to bed for a bit and concentrate on the crowded festive domestic calendar, with some good training weeks in between to work - weather permitting - on their attacking.

"I agree this could be a good thing for us," he said. "For a start, it will allow us more training sessions and to work on things. That will help us improve, especially in our offensive play.

"It's something new for me, but I've been raised and brought up with English football so I know it is part of the culture. And I'm looking forward to that. My kids are coming over here for 14 days so we'll have a Scottish Christmas and I'm looking forward to that."

This important stretch of the season then continues into the January transfer window, the chance to replenish the batteries with some warm weather training - almost certainly playing against the likes of PSV Eindhoven and Shakhtar Donetsk in Gran Canaria - before the red letter day of a League Cup semi-final against Rangers on February 1.

Deaila said: "The most important thing is to make sure our group on February 1 is better than it is now and to try and help our younger players who might leave on loan to progress so they come back to us in a stronger position."

The likes of Liam Henderson fall into this latter category, but having successfully raided the Scandinavian market for Mikael Lustig and Stefan Johansen at this time of year, there will almost certainly be further recruitment from that part of the world in January. "We go all over Europe to find players - the right ones," he said. "We are looking to see if there are ones out there who will represent a good deal for us. I have, of course, very good control of Norway, and good contacts in Sweden and Denmark too so, yes, that is a market that could be interesting.

"You know what you get with Scandinavian players, you get discipline, they are very like Scottish players and it is easier to fit them in to group. It is also a target when you think about money as well. It is also easier for them to adapt, because they are used to the weather."