NOTHING in Norway comes close to the unique atmosphere of an Old Firm match but Ronny Deila is still something of a connoisseur when it comes to big local squabbles in world football.
Next Sunday at Hampden will see this 39-year-old student of the game from Porsgrunn, Norway, add Celtic versus Rangers to a resume which includes the North London derby, El Clasico in Spain and the big Lancashire grudge match.
"I've been to United-Liverpool, Arsenal-Tottenham, and Real Madrid-Barcelona," said Deila. "So I have been to some good ones. But I think this is going to be the best."
Deila may never have checked out the clash of the Glasgow giants, but he has people by his side who have. His assistant John Collins made a notable contribution to many of these matches, including a splendid, curling free-kick in a 1-1 draw at Ibrox in April 1994, an occasion marked by Celtic supporters having been banned by David Murray for vandalism in previous encounters.
Coach John Kennedy's exposure to the fixture was more infrequent, but Deila was commiserating with him for the knee issues which curtailed his career one day until he too let slip that he managed to squeeze a goalless draw at Camp Nou and a 2-1 win at Ibrox into one famous week in 2004. His playing squad also contains seasoned Old Firm veterans such as Scott Brown, Charlie Mulgrew, Emilio Izaguirre, Anthony Stokes, Adam Matthews and James Forrest.
"It is going to be a new experience for me, an exciting game, an exciting week," said Deila, ahead of the League Cup semi-final. "But John Collins has been through it and there are many people at this club who have been through it. I know he did a long shot and I get all the stories - but maybe they are just the good ones. Maybe I have to check that it is all true. But it is always important to have people there who have been part of it so you know what is coming."
In time Deila may come to spend every waking hour worrying about events across the city but for now he is perhaps the only Parkhead boss in history who hasn't needed to be consumed by it.
This is, of course, a very different Old Firm match - the first to be played since Rangers' re-admission to the leagues following administration and liquidation. Deila perceives Celtic's main rivals to be Aberdeen and Dundee United, (when the semi-final draw was made, he said "there were three good teams in there and we didn't get the best one") and events at Ibrox since then have done little to change his mind.
Indeed, perhaps the main problem for Deila as the minutes tick down to kick-off is the unpredictability at Rangers. With Ally McCoist on gardening leave, and Kenny McDowall having tendered his resignation, even the occupant of the Rangers technical area isn't set in stone. His efforts to scout his opponents in person, during Friday night's Championship meeting with Hearts, lasted just 24 minutes amid farcical scenes at a snow-bound and stormy Ibrox.
"Maybe [they are difficult to analyse] but I think it is quite a consistent team," said Deila. "I don't think they have changed so much on the pitch, so I think they know what they are going to meet in us and we know what we are going to meet in them. It is going to be a tactical game, of course, but it is also going to be won by the performance."
Achieving the requisite quality, of course, is always easier when you have 11 men on the pitch. The dismissals of Cha Du Ri and Victor Wanyama punctuated Celtic's last Old Firm defeat, at Ibrox in March 2012, an occasion when the Parkhead side could have lifted the title, and Deila will be stressing over the next few days the importance of maintaining discipline in the belief that the more football is played, the more the fixture should suit his team.
"It is important that we play the match, not the occasion," said Deila. "That is so important, because we win through good football and we know there are going to be things around the match which are different to what we are used to. In the end it is about 90 minutes of quality football, if we do that, are disciplined and offensive in our head, we have a good chance to win."
The beginners' guide that he has received has taught Deila to expect an agricultural approach from the Ibrox club. "I think in every Old Firm game the first 15 minutes is going to be not many passes," said the Norwegian. "It is going to be an intense game. But after a while things open up To illustrate that the madness of Old Firm day can engulf even the most placid of characters, look no further than Izaguirre. The Honduran has had plenty of fine moments during Old Firm encounters - his incursions down the left illuminated a 3-0 win at Parkhead in February 2011, for instance - but one memory he doesn't look back on so fondly took place at the national stadium in March 2011. His return to Hampden sees him hoping to banish the memory of his dismissal in the final minute of extra time as Celtic went down 2-1 to Rangers in the League Cup final.
"It is very nice to play a classic like this and I hope the supporters like it as well because I really enjoy them," said Izaguirre, whose fine form for his club last season matched that of his first. "The worst memory was the cup final with the red card in the last minute. I had to do it because I was the last man and it was the last moment in the game. It wasn't good but I am a team player and I work for my team. But it is not about revenge for me. It is just a new game."
Alas, for him he will not be facing his compatriot, due to Arnold Peralta's mutually agreed departure from Rangers during another turbulent week. "I am friendly with him and we would talk a lot so I am sad he has gone but everything happens for a reason," said Izaguirre.
The next month or so will define Celtic's season, and while some of the club's support crave the bragging rights of a massive margin of victory, any win next Sunday would keep them in pole position for a treble. "Every game Celtic play there is pressure on us," said Izaguirre. "We want to win them all. We want to win this one. It is my dream to win the treble so I am working very hard towards that. But all the teams have chance in the cup."
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