RONNY DEILA has survived seven months living in the Glasgow goldfish bowl with his sense of humour intact.
The Celtic manager is an open and honest figure - occasionally to his detriment as he discovered this week after inadvertently irritating Jackie McNamara - but even he could see that there was little to be gained from wading too deep into the memory banks to recall a previous trip to Ibrox as a room full of hacks inched ever closer to the edge of their seats in anticipation.
The occasion was a boys' trip to Glasgow around 15 years ago, this group of Norwegian tourists taking in a Rangers match against Motherwell as part of their visit. It would have been entirely natural had Deila sat in with the Rangers punters, a new red, white and blue scarf around his neck to enhance the experience but, with a smile, he was quick to quell such a thought, adding that - in the pre-Instagram era - he was fairly confident there would be no photographic evidence to prove to the contrary.
"I'd only been to Ibrox once before and that was about 15 years ago," he recalled. "It was just a trip with my friends. I was a player in Norway at the time and was just with a group of boys having fun in Glasgow. We just sat in the stand like normal. You're not getting me to say it was in the Rangers end! I think the game was against Motherwell and Rangers won 3-0."
His second visit arrived in rather different circumstances, Deila this time in the directors' box alongside his assistant John Collins for Rangers' league match against Hearts last Friday night. It was something of a surreal experience. Not only was the match abandoned after just 20 minutes due to a frozen pitch, the evening unfolded to the backdrop of sustained protests by the Rangers support against the club's custodians. It meant that for once the Celtic manager was not the most unpopular figure in the Ibrox directors box, the bulk of the ire saved for the men in Rangers blazers in the rows immediately behind him.
Deila was there to cast an eye over Rangers ahead of the teams' League Cup semi-final on February 1 and was insistent it wasn't an entirely wasted trip. "It was nice to be there, but the game shouldn't have been played," he said. "There was so much snow they could have gone cross-country skiing instead! But you get a feeling of the team and the stadium as well. So it was nice for me to be there.
"Everything has been very new for me here but it has been more than six months now and I feel much more prepared and confident now than I was when I started.
"You learn everything from experience and the game against Rangers is going to be a new experience for me. I'm looking forward to it. They were very nice to us at Ibrox on Friday night. It was quite professional, there were no problems for me being there. It was a good atmosphere.
"I still got something out of it, even though the game was abandoned. I also have assistants who know the Rangers team very well. I also watch their games on TV, so I think we will be well prepared for that game."
The draw for the first Old Firm contest in almost three years was made on November 1 but as the date grows ever closer it is cropping up increasingly in conversation. Deila has been made well aware by people both inside and outside of Celtic Park just how significant a match this will be but he has refused to let it become a distraction. His team face Motherwell at home tomorrow night - where a victory will take them back to the top of the SPFL Premiership - and then Ross County away on Saturday prior to their date at Hampden and the manager insists those games remain his priority.
"You can feel the atmosphere around this [Old Firm] game already. But I don't need to make it bigger than it is. We have to play a football game, that's the most important thing. If we are going to win it, we have to play good football and that's what we will prepare for.
"For me, I know it is a very big game. But we have so many exciting games coming up now. It's a semi-final and if we win it we are in a cup final where we want to be. The game against Dundee in the Scottish Cup a week later is very important as well.
"The league is close just now, so you can only do one thing - which I've done for the last four months - and that is to think just one day ahead. You have to prepare well and see the whole picture."
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