RONNY DEILA, the Celtic manager, will be given the time and the funds to impose his style on the Scottish champions.
The Parkhead side failed to qualify for the Champions League after a dispiriting 1-0 defeat at home to Maribor of Slovenia on Tuesday night but the Celtic board will support the manager and follow their long-term strategy despite protests from about 200 fans outside the ground.
Celtic now lose out on the £15m-plus revenue that comes with the group stages of the Champions League with the Europa League only offering a comparatively paltry £4m but Deila last night said he was looking to recruit a further two players after Wakaso Mubarak, the Ghanaian internationalist, signed a one-year loan deal with the option to buy from Rubin Kazan. A deal for Sporting Gijon striker Stefan Scepovic has stalled with Celtic sources blaming work permit problems.
Deila, though, last night insisted the club were hopeful of signing two players before the window closes on Monday. Further reinforcements will be brought in during the January transfer window as the 38-year-old Norwegian seeks players who can fit in with his strategy.
"The club want to invest in the team but I have been here a short time and it's important that we do things in a good way so we know what we are doing. It's difficult to get the quality of players that I know the fans want to get and that I want to get as well," he said.
"But I think now, in this window, we will have a signing or two more. In the coming one in January as well, we need now to build up the team so that we can stand in a whole other situation next year. Players want to play for Celtic, and those who can develop and take a new step in their career, they are the ones who want to play here."
Deila is aware he has only two transfer windows - with only days remaining in the first - to forge a team capable of coming through the Champions League qualifying campaign next season should, as expected, Celtic win the SPFL Premiership again.
His major priority is a striker with strength and pace who will hold a crucial place in the 4-3-3 set-up he prefers. Cameron Jerome, the 28-year-old Englishman, has rejected Celtic for Norwich City and Scepovic may be bound for PSV Eindhoven. However, Celtic have identified other targets.
Deila remained brutally frank about Celtic's failure to progress against Maribor after gaining a reprieve having lost 6-1 on aggregate to Legia Warsaw but been given a reprieve because the Polish side fielded an ineligible player. "We didn't deserve to be in the Champions League and we have to start building now," he said. "We're not good enough and now it's the Europa League and we are going to do everything we can now to achieve things in that cup."
The draw for that competition is tomorrow night and the squad is bolstered by the arrival of Wakaso who may be included for the match against Dundee on Sunday.
The winger has 19 Ghanaian caps and featured against both Germany and Portugal in this summer's World Cup in Brazil.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article