Ronny Deila didn’t stick two fingers up at me, or any of his other doubters, at full time on Saturday, but he would have been quite entitled to.
Fans were treated to a style and tempo of football that hasn’t been seen at Celtic Park for many a year, and it was all from Celtic.
There was even a bonus when I flung my bunnet into the air to acknowledge Fergus McCann when another came down with it. Try as I did, not overly hard, I couldn’t find its owner, and so ended up with two bunnets. When Dermot Desmond eventually makes an entrance, I’m hoping for a similar result if we chuck wallets into the air.
Another long day saw a 4am start and a train journey into wet Glasgow, a walk through the Gallowgate, several breakfasts, so that refreshments were allowed before the Lennon CSC admitted that not only was it a good day out, but the football was great as well. Long may it continue.
Celtic scored six goals past a Dundee Utd side who many thought would prove a stumbling block, but Deilas team never allowed them to get into any sort of rhythmn. Despite a couple of early scares involving debutant Jason “Sevco ” -he’s a new Kompany ) Deneyaar, the lad soone settled and proved he is a class act. Some of the challenges he won during the game showed he has that rare quality to extend his leg by about six inches to win tackles, and if I was Ronny I would ring Manchester City, tell them he’s gone AWOL and dye his hair or something.
Another who has started his Celtic career well is keeper Craig Gordon, who looked sharp, agile and above all completely in command at the back. He got a bit of a knock in the first half, but walked it off, and that went some way to allaying any fears about his fitness.
The biggest surprise though was that out of the six goals, two came from headers from forwards-Commons and Berge-, which again are something of a rarity for Celts recently.
This weeks game against Maribor in Slovenia doesn’t seem so daunting anymore. The players are beginning to gell, and Saturdays win didn’t have players like Brown, Lustig, Boerrigter or Griffiths involved.
Maybe we’ve turned the corner, and the teething problems have all gone.
Deila explained a little more of his vision for the players;
For players to meet the demands at this club, which is reaching the Champions League and performing in the Champions League, I am asking: do you want it or not? If players are not fit, the easiest element, and if I get sacked for that [making them fit], that is not my problem, it is the club’s problem. I know the club is with me, I know the players are with me.
“The lunches we have are unbelievable, and if you don’t like the food you have a big problem. It is not me saying ‘this is not on’, it is the work Pam is doing. You have to educate and in the right way. I don’t say to them ‘you have to do it’. I can say ‘you have to drop your body fat and if you need help with that, talk to Pam’.
“You talk to me about Champions League? OK, then we have to look like a Champions League team. We have to train like a Champions League team. And that means going at 100 per cent every day. We have to be fit. We look at the body fat. If you weigh two or three kilos too much? I want a quick team and you can’t be quick if you weigh too much. You need quick players in Europe. Look at [Cristiano] Ronaldo and [Gareth] Bale. That’s the standard we’re talking about.
“After that it’s about communication with the players. It’s important after games that they get feedback on what they do, what they can improve. And then we start to process it so we can be better as a unit and also as individuals. It’s new for them.”
He went out of his way to dismiss any comparisons with Neil Lennons style of training, which may have not been quite so rigid…
“It’s different styles,” he says. “If you are a leader, you have to lead as what kind of person you are. There are things you can adapt, but I have to be me. Neil is Neil and had fantastic success. And what they did was good because they had success. I do it differently in some things, because, if not, I’m not me.”
“You know, I can’t understand that they [the players] don’t have to eat lunch here because when you train, everybody knows that you have to get something in to recover. If you go straight home, or to a cafe in the city, it is too late. So for me, it is to be a professional. Also it is a social thing, to eat together. Then you have the different view that when you have too many hours here, you get tired of it. You have to prepare for a game. It is so hard to break this in the right way.”
Its all a bit reminiscent of Paul le Guen, the French manager who took over at the now defunct Rangers and tried to introduce a similar attitude towards diet and fitness. He, of course was ousted by player power as his charges failed to grasp the importance of eating and training properly.
And look what happened to that club…
Mikael Lustig agrees with his boss, and reckons the other players do as well. It did appear to be a bit of a culture shock for them at first, but if Saturday is anything to go by, then they are coming round to this alien concept ( to the cholesterol capital of the world, at any rate, ) of putting the right things into one’s body.
Lustig said ;
“To be fair it was Coke and Irn Bru for lunch for some lads. But it’s a different culture between Scandinavia and here in the UK. Here, you can eat pancake for breakfast or toast. We never do that in Scandinavia, it’s more healthy food. We eat fruit, porridge something like that for breakfast. Energy drinks and so on to drink.”
When my kids were young, we wouldn’t let them have fizzy drinks, as they aren’t good for them. Yet professional athletes have been having them daily…
Makes you think.
Deila summarised, and gave us an insight to the way he’s going about things…
“I don’t give a shit if they do mistakes, tomorrow, next weekend or the weekend after that and we lose, but if you are the same player in the autumn you were in the spring, then you have a problem and I have a problem. You have to learn from your mistakes. Learn from the good things because players who don’t want to get better are nothing to do with Celtic.
“Everybody has to want to get better because this is a so huge club, so important. So I have to learn a lot, I have new experiences all the time, and have to adapt to them and take them into me. Tactics, the decisions of the team, how I prepare the training, how I get energy into the players and motivate them… there are 1000 questions I have to ask myself all the time and then I need time to get away and reflect. That’s the culture I want. I want my staff to take their own decisions and think, ‘what is best for the player’. If a player needs to be stronger and he doesn’t get it, it’s not only the player’s problem. It’s also the staff, because why else are they here? They have to take responsibility for their tasks.”
He’s going to treat them like grown ups, an essential part of man management. Looks like I owe him an apology and a bunch of flowers.
On the train home on saturday, it was mentioned that the last time someone came in and changed the way things were done so drastically, we were European champions within a couple of years.
Its ridiculous to hope for a similar result, but thats what football is all about.
Hopes and dreams….
And theres more good news! Cameron Jerome,a target for Celtic, is set to join Norwich City, while the hoops look set to bring Ghanainan winger Wakaso Mubarek to Glasgow to keep the number of available wingers in double figures. The Ghanaian is strong, fast, but has a bit of a temper, and for those of us who like a bet, he should ensure a return for anyone who puts a fiver on him getting booked. He is coming on a one year loan with an option to buy next summer.
The price has been set at £2.5m
At 5pm today, the Court of Arbitration will issue a statement-or decision-on the Legia v Uefa appeal, which is a bit like the Transport Unions getting involved in a dispute at your local bowling club after you’ve been barred for kicking a bench over.
Its got nothing to do with them, and will only bring the wrath of UEFA down on Legia. Incidentally, the referee in the first game has been sacked…, according to twitter..
Van Boekel, the referee who gave 2 penalties to #LegiaWarszawa, has been stood down from #UEFA due to failing a fitness test.
Well. Who’d a thought it ?
Tommy Burns was the youngster in Fridays photo, and he would have been looked down on Saturday with a smile, as he was another advocate of this swashbuckling style.
Barry McGonigle , on twitter has been busy. He’s restored this , which must have taken ages,
And this, with one or two legends from the past. When is it from ?
It’s the 7-1 team of ‘Oh Hampden in the Sun’ fame. The supreme Hunskelpers!
This guy Delia does talk a load of shit.I can,t see an ounce of fat on any celtic players
So we humped a crap utd team weve been doing that for about 20 tears so nought has changed
Still not spent a penny on new players and no sign of a goal scoring striker
One swallow does not make a summer,still not impressed
worried that maribor will do to us what legia did ,if that utd player hadn,t put the ball past the post in the second minute the result might have been a lot different
Funny how pirate pete was absent from the flag ceremony in hiding maybe he,s with the permanently missing Irish owner who,s never seen even at AGM,S
What about the greenkeeper, you think he does an okay job Deadhead as everyone else is deemed fecking hopeless.
YOUR A HAPPY CLAPPER
BUT FOR A MISTAKE BY LEGIA WE WOULD BE OFF TO WATCH ANOTHER SHEEP KILLED
Celtic hit the post before utd had that chance – wonder what might have happened if that shot had went in, how many would we have scored? I reckon we had 28 shots on Saturday, about 16 on target and the utd team we were playing won their first 2 games this season, beating Aberdeen & Motherwell – or are they crap too?
I don’t know why I or anyone else replies to your pathetic posts, perhaps if we all ignore you, you’ll go back to the follow follow board.
Dear God, Why do we have to suffer ‘Dickhead’ after every game…
Gi’e yerself a break son, for God sake, and leave us in piece.
“When there’s nothing positive to say; say NOTHING!”….
sorry ‘PEACE’ is the word I was looking for?!
GO PLAY ON THE MOTORWAY
I WATCHED US WIN THE BIG CUP
TODAY WE GET HUMPED BY POLES FFS
Away and take yer heid furra Rapahael Sheidt shouty man the Cup Winners Cup is not a Big Cup besides your team never qualified as Cup Winners.
I hear yer Manager Super Shwally is looking at buying the North Korean striking sensation… Du Wan Kok
maribor will do to us what legia did
Then we would be in the CL league stages.
deadhead why dont you fuck of to your usual forums. your team has no money, is going down the drain yet you are obsessed with celtic. meep meep buddy 😉
WHY DONT YOU FUCK OFF TO IBROX IF WANT TO WATCH SHIT FOOTBALL YA HUN
i believe your lot are zombies now bud, the huns died.
me thinks you are on the wrong site…move along sevco, newco’s not aloud here
Biggest plus for me on Saturday and Wednesday was Craig Gordon. Cannae mind the last time a was 100% confident in oor goalie. Touchin wood as i type….
lol….touchin wood
Hi deadhead. Very apt
Guys like you need a reality check, yes we need a free scoring number 9 but so does every team in europe and teams that play in a more attractive league with more tv revenue, we spent in excess of £7 mill on pukki , balde and boerigter last year and it didnt work so maybe being a bit prudent with loan signings is the way forward then spending on them when we have the measure of them, as for beating unt 6-1 with fast flowing football is not what you want to see every week then maybe you should choose another sport to follow on a sat afternoon
The new manager deserves a chance and also the backing of all of us , as for peter lawell and dermot desmond just look across the city to see the benifits of having a well run club.
That’s the key to the loan signings, we need a fee agreed now should it work out for all parties. Hard to do as we get all the benefits ie good player or see ya later if he’s pish with no transfer hassle.
But of the loan deals so far only Tonev has an agreed fee, and Denayer will never be in our price range. So if he is doing some short term business while developing youth long term maybe fair enough, the VVD / Denayer partnership could be the best tandem since Rieper made Stubbs great.Sadly that was only a year as well.
THE WHALE KILLING WANK HAD HIS CHANCE AGAINST LEGIA
WE WERE DISGRACED ON THE FIELD END OF
DELIA OUT
Glad to see the photographer took the lens off the camera, unlike the cameraman at the game.
Another honest mistake no doubt.
Great performance, but as Ronnie Deila himself said they took their foot off the gas in the last half hour which can be critical in Europe
What I liked about saturday was the fact that we pressed and played high tempo from the off….as opposed to the “sit in for 60 minutes and see what happens” that had become the norm.
If Celtic want to make inroads in europe then they have to implement ideas throughout the footballing structure. Stuff like proper controlled diet may seem like a small thing but you can bet your arse teams like Ajax, Madrid, Bayern etc have been doing this sort of thing for years.
I swing between raving about Ronnie to ranting about him depending on how each game has gone, but the more I hear and see the more he is winning me over. We have to give him time and i’m sure well see the long term improvement we all hope for.
HH
The pressing looked good and it’s got us three goals in the last two games. What a performance, I’m goiong to be greedy and want more of the same. Dundee Utd made a few chances but we really turned on the style, was difficult to pick a motm.
I’m all for fitness but worry if there’s too much emphasis on it, some players my try ‘shortcuts’ to low body fat. I played amatuer and there was a teammate or two that used ‘shortcuts’, this route to boby shape/fitness is more available than you might think. Theres big guys in UFC, boxing, rugby, etc and they seem fit enough. Would rather have a Socrates than a Mo Farrah, hope Ronny feels the same.
Can’t wait for Maribor.
Still concerned, but right behind RD. I just hope he doesn’t do a Mowbray and refuse to get the teams hands dirty when required.
Pragmatism Ronny- it’s no a dirty word
Hail Hail Yir man wi the colour pics.
good stuff
Hey dickhead your that shit that you would have moaned about the 67 team cause there was no one from 30 miles outside glasgow, give us f#%ken piece with your constant moaning cause your team is no more, yes think your a Hun.
UNLIKE YOU IWAS BROUGHT WITH THE LIONS AND A GREAT MANAGER
THE CELTIC BOYS CLUB OF THE ERA
ARE BETTER THAN DELIAS TACTICAL RUBBISH
In this age of sports science and thousands of pounds per week wages, isn’t it astonishing that Celtics players are only now starting to eat and drink properly at training! My god – basic player management or what.
COYBIG
Players mightnt look like have much body fat but diet is about energy as well personally think all professional athletes should be as ripped as izzy who was back at best at weekend. Gordon commanding area and comfortable with ball at feet great to see … its a starting point which seems to be Ronnies point hopefully much more to come although I must admit my greatest surprise is that the team didn’t eat together everyday!
When you watch the top sides they squeeze you so hard that the ball is won back quickly. No ball means no domination. It is of course what you then do with it. In the past Celtic teams have been guilty of just stroking the ball across the park and getting nowhere fast. The Johansson goal was a perfect illustration of how to harass the opposition and get posession to turn it into goals. When defenders see that going on it undermines their confidence. When we gain posession, like we did with the last goal, it is the perfect way to play football. Forrest’s ball wide was great for the wide man to run on to and play it across goal, the defenders were caught out and lost.Pity about Forrest, he can do it but I fear for his future.
HH
tam,thats a good observation of saturday.when was the last time we harried and bullied any team?hopefully a sign of things to come.I can see some casualties from this new fitness & dietary regime though…
DIDN,T NOTICE MUCH CHANGE FROM LAST SEASON BALL STILL PASSED SQUARE MAJORITY OF TIME
Hearts managed a good win
Being the wee fat bastard that I am I could have done with some of that 30 year ago.go get them tic. Hh
the heed of deedheed is overheating and his keyboards broke. Take the ice bucket challenge before its too late deedheed.
For the purposes of filtering out shite posts please ignore the nonsensical posts from Deadhead. Clearly a Rangers supporter. Responding to it gives it undeserved fuel.
HH!
wee bawwy and fat sally two contenders for manager of the year ha ha dontye just luvem ha ha
Deadhead, aptly named. In a reply some time ago I stated that you were a troll? Comments above do nothing to make me think otherwise. You have been rumbled kid.
Ralph
From the wagontrain of depression to the bandwagon of euphoria in the space of 1 weekend.
But it is not in my nature to put the boot in when someone is down. I am just glad you now see possibile potential and keep the faith.
“On the train home on saturday, it was mentioned that the last time someone came in and changed the way things were done so drastically, we were European champions within a couple of years.”
I said this within a week of Ronny’s appointment. The future will see me declared either a seer of some genius or a just the old fool that I am.
H H
I for one am glad we didn’t get rid of Strachan after artmedia. So no surprise when I say the man deserves at the very least a season in charge. I am surprised also that the team do not eat together after training. I do think utd made mistakes that let us in, but those mistakes were forced through our play. I didn’t see a 6-1 result, and can only hope it is the result of what we did right in the game and not luck as others might suggest.