SCANDINAVIANS are no strangers to forensic detective work.
Denmark and Sweden may have been more prominent in the various crime series which have been such hits on British television, but Norwegian authors and screenwriters have been prominent in the region's noir scene, too, with a keen interest in establishing innocence and guilt. It came as no surprise when Celtic's Stefan Johansen was entirely relaxed about the SFA's "retrospective action" on their most recent fixture. In his home country, the Norwegian FA would have done the same thing.
Johansen's captain was at risk of being suspended for the League Cup final but Scott Brown was spared. When the inevitable message emerged from the SFA compliance officer - think of him as The Killing's Sarah Lund, in a suit instead of a woollen jumper - Tony McGlennan had picked through the rubble of the Dundee United-Celtic game on Sunday without feeling the need to put Brown in the dock. Had he been cited for a thundering tackle on Nadir Ciftci he would have faced a suspension and been absent for this weekend's League Cup final. Instead, there was no mention of him. "He would have been a big loss but I didn't think that was going to happen," said Johansen. "He is the captain and means a lot to the team."
Johansen might have felt like one of the few who didn't need to work about what McGlennan might do. United's Calum Butcher was spared a possible suspension, and Aidan Connolly a citation for diving, while Virgil van Dijk and Paul Paton have appealed the red cards they received. "We have the same thing in Norway," said Johansen of what can be disparaged as "trial by TV". "It's a good thing. It's difficult for the referee when things happen so quickly, there could be 10 players around. It's good they can go back and look at it.
"I saw the tackle from 'Broony'. It was just a tackle and everything else was just a lot of players around it. That is part of his game. It's not only him in this league who makes hard tackles. That's one of the differences in Scotland compared to Norway. It's hard but it's also fair. You just need to adapt your game. Of course if you mistime the tackle it can be dangerous but when it's clean it's fair.
"We could see how important he is to the team when he was out at the start of the season. He's a great player and a fantastic captain for the team. He gives it out but he takes it back Â- it's just part of his game. Broony is the kind of player you are glad to have on your side. When we played Scotland I was injured so I was kind of happy not to face him..."
Johansen was named as the SPFL Premiership player of the month for February yesterday, an appropriate reward for his powerful and athletic displays in the Celtic attack. He is essential to Deila on the pitch, having been the first to publicly endorse his managerial credentials with the benefit of inside knowledge. He played under him at Stromsgodset before moving to Celtic last January, half-a-year before Deila himself. Norwegian managers have been generally poor in British football. Egil Olsen at Wimbldeon, Stale Solbakken at Wolves and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Cardiff City all failed to deliver. That shaped a climate which worked against Deila at first.
"When we were struggling earlier in the season people in Norway were talking about it," said Johansen. "People were asking questions about the gaffer very quickly. But I knew he would be a good match for Celtic. If they give him time and let him do his thing, he will win a lot of trophies for Celtic. To be honest, I wasn't worried at all at the start. I don't think he cared about it either. You have to be confident and that's how the gaffer is. There is more to come.
"That's football. One day you are a hero, the next you aren't. Things can change and I don't think the gaffer cared too much about it at the start. People in Norway were saying negative thing but he focused on what he does best - training football teams. We are now starting to see his philosophy coming through.
"Ronny is a very popular coach back in Norway. He trained a small club like Stromsgodset and had us playing really good football. In the past, Norway was famous for long-ball football under Egil Olsen and it's still a bit like that. But some of the teams are starting to do well in a different way. We got the bronze medal in the under-21 European Championships and it suits us to play a more technical style."
It won't require any advanced detective work to figure out if this will reap great rewards for Deila and Celtic. Exhibit A, if it comes, will be the treble.
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