Celtic Diary Tuesday April 19: Deila To Go In The Summer

Perhaps not the most surprising news you’ll hear today, or any other day, but norwegian TV broke the story last night. With the help of google translate, if help is the correct word, here’s a bit of it;

At least , I think it’s google translate. Gibberish like that is symptomatic of our own media, and it makes me wonder exactly who the two journalists credited with the story are, as they go by the names of Kristoffer Jack and Matts Lindsay.

Nah, not really. It’s way above their capabilities.

So, thats that then.

What promised to be a new wave of ideas under a man set to make his mark not only in Scotland but on the world stage,  crashed and burned on the slopes of Hampden, and we can all look forward to a new manager with, er, new ideas and making his mark on the world stage etc…

What went wrong ?

One thing in particular ? A number of issues ?

Well, let me put forward an idea as to not only where it went wrong, but suggest that it isn’t going to get any better.

If you check the old diaries, you’ll note that when Ronny arrived, it didn’t take long for the scales to fall from my eyes, and I ploughed a fairly lonely furrow in criticising him. However, after the six goal thrashing of Dundee Utd last season that I began to think there might be something to this guy.

Turns out there wasn’t, so I was right all along. Such revisionism may make me a candidate for Editor in Chief of a couple of national newspapers, but thats true.

Repeatedly, I would claim that Deila was allowing the tail to wag the dog, from the appointment of his assistants to the favourable treatment of one or two of the players.

His initial confidence and strength would have taken a hammer blow when Jo Inge Berget failed miserably in an early qualifier, although latterly it was proved he isn’t a bad player after all, but he’d driven the first nail into Deila’s coffin.

After that, the world queued up to put their own alongside it.

If it is that certain players do not want to play for him, or that he doesn’t want to play them, perhaps the reason is a little more obvious than we think.

The system employed by Celtic’s Recruitment Office leads to a list of players being handed over to the “scouts ” when a particular position needs strengthening.

This list is open to a handful of agents, who put together a cv extolling the virtues of their man.

Thats how we go shopping these days, and thats why we’ve ended up with so much crap. Players are not watched , they are not sounded out, and very little is known about their personalities, which is bizarre, considering the financial investment and the fact that they will be expected to slot into a squad of players who should be looking out for each other.

So, when they get here, they will know the manager doesn’t really want them, and they , in turn, will decide that they need to do little else other than turn up for training and put in the odd decent shift on the park.

This system has been in place for a number of years, and if you thought Ronny suffered, look at the dross Strachan had to put up with…

Or Neil Lennon…

Do you honestly think either of those managers did a little dance around his office when he found out any of those players had agreed to come ?

Do you think any of those players were over the moon at coming to Celtic ?

Genuinely, I’d forgotten all about at least half of them. Yet at the time they were the next big thing, or the experience required to help the youngsters along.

Had Southampton not had a hot line to Celtic Park, and more money than sense, we could have been in real trouble.

Sure, we had the Ledley’s, the Ki’s, the Hooper’s and the Southampton lads, but had the south coast side looked closely at how Hooiveld-remember him, and Fox performed ( who ? ) , we’d have been lucky to even hear from them again.

The point is, the duff signings, most airbrushed out of history now, far outweigh the diamonds.

And unless this is sorted, and the whole system scrapped and returned to the simple but exhaustive way where someone watches a player, reccommends him and then the manager watches him, next season, no matter who is in charge, will be pretty much like last season.

Don’t forget, we went into this seasons champions league qualifiers with a front line from Dundee Utd. We then supplemented Leigh Griffiths with Carlton Cole and Colin Kazim richards, having sent Nadir Ciftci out on loan, along woith Anthony Stokes and Stefan Scepovic.

Ciftci was on the bench the night before he went out to Turkey. There is no way the manager knew about that move before it happened.

Those of us who think we could win the league with this squad have to realise that its not just about picking eleven players and shouting at them.

Management is far more complicated than that. Has a player fell out with his wife ? Is one of the kids ill ? Does he drink too much in the house, or spend a little too much time at the on line bookies ?

How will he interact with other players ? Will his family move house with him ? Is he loud in the dressing room and quiet on the pitch ? Or vice versa ? What if he has been a bit naughty and is being blackmailed by local thugs ? ( Has happened )

When you have a thirty or forty of them, its a nightmare.

When Deila goes, someone else will take up the reins. his first job will be to find out what went wrong for his predecessor , his second will be to make sure it doesn’t happen to him.

Am I the only one to feel a little sad it’s over ?

Probably, he’s been let down by the board, the players and even the support at times . Who can blame him for thinking “fuck it ”

The tactical disaster that was Sunday’s game is bewildering. Why would he try to contain a side from a league below him ?

Did he, like Mowbray before him, start to believe the guff written about them-and his own ability- in the papers ?

Again , that comes down to someone else at Celtic Park not doing their job properly. Like the inept scouts, the PR guy needs to shoulder responsibility for allowing Deila to face a hostile press without taking control of the situation.

John Collins should have known, and advised strongly against this holding game. He knew the support would not accept it. Is he hoping to step into the Norwegians shoes ? Was it sabotage ?

And the senior players, of whom only charlie mulgrew is reported to be onside with the manager, should hang their heads in shame. they have let him down as well.

As pointed out in the replies yesterday, where were they when teenager Patrick Roberts missed his sitter ? Who was on hand to pick him up and put him right ?

No-one.

Scott Brown stepped up for a penalty kick that would have put the “rangers ” under severe pressure. He passed it back to the keeper.

Perhaps there are a number of youngsters in the squad, signed and chosen by Deila, such as Armstrong, Christie , Allan et al who feel let down. If Deila has sold them the dream and not allowed them to dream it, then they are right to feel that way.

It doesn’t make sense for him to purchase players he feels could play his way and not play them. Maybe he rebelled against the agent franchise system, and chose his own players.

But then again, why not play them ?

Did he feel that it’s better to go with the old guard for the rest of the season, and then start anew ? Or was he advised differently.

The Colllins Deila partnership did not work, it was never going to work. Collins has an ego. Number two’s should not have an ego, but be diligent, hard working and loyal.

It’s too late now to change things. Deila will go, Collins will be back on our television screens, and john Kennedy will be given another job lower down the line.

But nothing will change unless a radical overhaul of everything else at the club follows as well.

Its not just about the people at the club, its about the policy makers. They have got it wrong.

Elsewhere, we hear Brendan Rodgers has been approached to take over, but thats more to indirectly inform Neil Lennon that there is no chance he’s coming back, as he still hasn’t taken the hint.

Rodgers, who according to the football management book I looked at, sits eighteen year old players in front of a board to explain to them how much money they will make.

No thanks, we’re sick of mercenary players.

Moyes, Keane, Mackay, Coyle, Hughes…..the uninspiring list goes on.

Lambert, Martinez, Calderwood, Buthcher, …okay, i’m being silly now.

It doesn’t matter who we get, other things need to change, or else we’ll be sitting here next season saying the same thing.

The Deila Express wasn’t derailed by Deila, it was the others who put blocks of wood ahead of him on the tracks.

which leads me to a caption competiton, in a vain hope to at least start to smile some time this week.

And i’ll leave you with these words of wisdom, from Ryan Howard, on twitter, who had some words of advice for Deila…

If Ronny wants to earn some respect before he goes he should show his true feelings and punch fuck outta John Collins in the centre circle  

I just hope we don’t run into his new club in the qualifiers.