WHAT is the Norwegian for 'treble?' Ronny Deila embraced the intricacies of Scottish football's vernacular yesterday and proved he is up to speed with the terminology that comes with the territory.

The Celtic manager will hope his players are equally quick to learn his ways.

The Norwegian is keen to overcome Hearts in tomorrow's League Cup third round tie because he sees not just a trophy on the horizon, but the key to a successful future at Celtic. The League Cup on its own is not enough for Celtic fans. Even the best in the business found that out. Kenny Dalglish lifted the trophy as caretaker manager in 2000 after the sacking of his friend, John Barnes, but that entire tenure was tainted by failure.

Neil Lennon, on the other hand, delivered three league titles as manager in four seasons. Yet, the critics would only point to his failure to land the third-rated piece in the jigsaw, losing a League Cup final to Kilmarnock, a semi-final to St Mirren and then falling at the first hurdle last year against Morton.

Only three times in Celtic's history has the 'treble' been done, and just two managers have the achievement on their cv. Jock Stein in 1966-67 and 1968-69, and Martin O'Neill in 2000-01

"This game is an important one for us," reflected Deila yesterday at Lennoxtown, still frustrated by the further points being dropped in the Scottish Premiership with Sunday's draw at home to Motherwell. "This is the first trophy we can win and, as I've said all the time, both cups are important. I know the League Cup is sometimes used for playing younger teams but we have used a lot of our squad the whole time."

There is no League Cup format in Deila's homeland but he won the Norwegian Cup in 2010 with Stromsgodset before leading the club to the league title three years later. Asked about a Scottish treble, Deila replied: "I said when I came here this was a big goal for me and it's a huge goal for the players as well. I think it has only been done three times before in the history of Celtic. Martin O'Neill the last in 2001? It would be fantastic if we could achieve that."

Deila found himself on the end of a rebuke from Lennon on Sunday. The former Celtic manager was unhappy about the Norwegian's criticism of his predecessor's fitness regime after Deila had pledged to reduce his players' body fat and get them fitter.

Yesterday, Deila tried to dampen down the issue. "I inherited a champion team, so I never said anything to make that performance bad," said Deila. "What I meant is you get in some new players and you also have players who have been out injured and had surgeries and come back again, and also there is always room for improvements.

"As [Lennon] says as well, there are different ways to look at things and for me we still have a job to do to get the players fitter. That's nothing about what has gone here before because that was great, he did fantastically well and I think I have been respectful all the time. I'm a big fan of what he has done before."

Hearts were one of the teams who prevented Lennon from achieving a treble, when they defeated Celtic in the 2012 Scottish Cup semi-final.

Even though the Edinburgh club have dropped into the second tier, Deila insists they remain a first-class threat to his aspirations.

"I saw the game against Hibs on television and Hearts played well that day and we had people at their match on Saturday to watch them. We have a good knowledge over how they are playing and they are doing very well this season so far.

"They beat Rangers so it is going to be a tough game - the players and I know it - but I'm looking forward to playing another game so we can bounce back from the Motherwell result "

Deila made six changes against Motherwell to the side that had drawn with FC Salzburg in Austria in the Europa League group match last Thursday.

With three domestic prizes to pursue, and European involvement, the Celtic manager maintains that squad rotation is the only way.

"We've a long, hard match programme and you have to give some players the opportunity to get match fit," said Deila. "That's something we're thinking of all the time. But in this game there were maybe too many changes, you could see that in the first half.

"Every day we get to know one another better and every day we work on improving one another individually and collectively. Some of those players are coming in and some have been injured for a while. So they need to adapt and get fit and that's taking more time than I would've wanted."