THE memory of the feverish days of June have dimmed for Ronny Deila, their gaudy colour diminished by the chilled reality of football imperatives and smothered by an unrelenting pressure that is as much a part of the Celtic job as a Magners-branded tracksuit.
The Norwegian celebrated his 39th birthday in September, having watched his side go out of the Champions League qualifying process. Twice. His immediate future was to draw with a struggling Motherwell side and then lose to Hamilton Academical, both at Celtic Park, once the field where title-winning points were routinely harvested under Neil Lennon.
He has survived. There was much nonsense spouted before travelling to Dingwall in October that Celtic needed to defeat Ross County to ensure Delia had no need to consult flight times to Norway. Celtic won, starting a run of nine consecutive domestic victories that only ended against Dundee United at Tannadice on Sunday.
Deila can thus face Ross County this afternoon with an air of satisfaction and with a sense of limited security that encourages reflection.
A natter in a Lennoxtown dressing-room with a gaggle of press men produced insights into both the joy and struggle of exchanging Stromsgodset for Celtic.
"You have to be able to be comfortable in yourself, to deal with loneliness,'' said Deila of the acclimatisation process from a small cub to one that demands domestic success and pines for a leading place on the European stage.
It takes a Norwegian to reveal to us an essential truth. Our love of national game may be tried by falling standards and tested by an acceptance that the glory days lie in the past rather than the future, but this is still a football country of enduring devotion.
"The passion for football has excited me most, not only in Celtic but when we played Hearts and Dundee United at the weekend it was a good atmosphere,'' said Deila of his most conspicuous impression .
"It's much better than it is in Norway. The people here are really passionate about football. It also drives me a little crazy to see Sky Sports everywhere, it's also on the players' bus and is going all the time, football is going round and round.
"When you are sitting eating and Sky Sports is on and football is on the radio, its football all the time.''
This not only is evidence of how high-profile his post is but evidence of how pressure is unrelenting. Deila thus has come up with strategies to cope.'
He works out and plays sport. Revealingly, he no longer plays football. A former central defender, his reluctanc e to kick a ball tells much about his character.
"I can't play football, I hate to play football now, I haven't kicked a ball since I stopped playing because it can only go one way,'' he said. "I played a lot of squash but now I have to do something I can improve in.''
Deila may be a manager but he is still has the mindset of the professional footballer. "I have to compete, I love to compete to win,'' he said.
He has played golf a couple of times but is wary of such as John Kennedy, his assistant. "I need to beat Kendo because he is the champion of the staff but his handicap is not right, everybody says they're off 18,'' he said.
He has, instead, taken lessons in another sport. "It's much better to start something you can improve in and it's tennis,'' he said.
He has also improved as a man and a manager. ''I am much more experienced as a manager than just as a coach,'' he said of the six months in Glasgow. "In Norway, I'm more on the pitch doing tasks, but now I manage more.''
He had dealt with the loneliness, he has improved his English and he has also adapted to a new culture. "All of these things, I am better,'' he said.
The work has paid off in his realisation that he has improved his life. "I am so happy I made this move because I was getting bored in the end at Stromsgodset,'' he said. ''Everything that was coming, I knew it. I knew how things were to be done. Now I have to do it another environment at a bigger club and it's been a really good time.''
He added: ''It's also been hard, but when you have bad things and you come through them, then you have learned as a person and a lot of people in this world would like that. You also feel stronger. If I went back to Norway now, I would be a totally different person because I have had this experience. I'd know what I am talking about when I talk of training a team in Britain.''
He benefited from a chat at dinner with Gordon Strachan, the Scotland manager who has experience of precisely what is demanded of the boss at Celtic Park.
"As he said, there is no-one who can imagine what being Celtic manager is like unless you have been in the situation yourself,'' said Deila. He was grateful to be shown the bumps in the road, the obstacles in his path.
"You think: I should do that this way,'' he said of the aftermath of the Strachan dinner. ''It gives you confidence that you are on the right track, but also puts new things into your mind.''
He shares a mindset with Strachan about how to approach the job. "It's about what you do on the training pitch to get the level up, to get people well organised and in good shape,'' he said.
"If you do your work 100% there, you get the same in matches and that is a philosophy we share. Also, he told me to switch off, to put yourself away from the pressures and find something to do outside of football.''
Strachan, famously, bought a hat to disguise himself from the madding crowd on his visits to the cinema .
"Maybe I should try and find one," said Deila who has kept his head amid the routine but unrestrained clamour of a Scottish season.
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