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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Another long day saw a 4am start and a train journey into \u00a0wet 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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 \u00a0got 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Maybe we’ve turned the corner, and the teething problems have all gone.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Deila explained a little more of his vision for the players;<\/p>\n
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\u2019s problem. I know the club is with me, I know the players are with me.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe lunches we have are unbelievable, and if you don\u2019t like the\u00a0food<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0you have a big problem. It is not me saying \u2018this is not on\u2019, it is the work Pam is doing. You have to educate and in the right way. I don\u2019t say to them \u2018you have to do it\u2019. I can say \u2018you have to drop your body fat and if you need help with that, talk to Pam\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou 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\u2019t be quick if you weigh too much. You need quick players in Europe. Look at [Cristiano] Ronaldo and [Gareth] Bale. That\u2019s the standard we\u2019re talking about.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAfter that it\u2019s about communication with the players. It\u2019s 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\u2019s new for them.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n He went out of his way to dismiss any comparisons with Neil Lennons style of training, which may have not been quite so rigid…<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s different styles,\u201d he says. \u201cIf 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\u2019m not me.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou know, I can\u2019t understand that they [the players] don\u2019t 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Its 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.<\/p>\n \u00a0And look what happened to that club…<\/p>\n \u00a0Mikael 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.<\/p>\n Lustig said ;<\/p>\n \u201cTo be fair it was Coke and Irn Bru for lunch for some lads. But it\u2019s 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\u2019s more healthy food. We eat fruit, porridge something like that for breakfast. Energy drinks and so on to drink.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0When 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…<\/p>\n Makes you think.<\/p>\n \u00a0Deila summarised, and gave us an insight to the way he’s going about things…<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t 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\u2019t want to get better are nothing to do with Celtic.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cEverybody 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\u2019s the culture I want. I want my staff to take their own decisions and think, \u2018what is best for the player\u2019. If a player needs to be stronger and he doesn\u2019t get it, it\u2019s not only the player\u2019s problem. It\u2019s also the staff, because why else are they here? They have to take responsibility for their tasks.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Its ridiculous to hope for a similar result, but thats what football is all about.<\/p>\n Hopes and dreams….<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The price has been set at \u00a32.5m<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u00a0sacked…, according to \u00a0twitter..<\/p>\n Van Boekel, the referee who gave 2 penalties to <\/span> Well. Who’d a thought it ?<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Barry McGonigle , on twitter has been busy. He’s restored this , which must have taken ages,<\/p>\n And this, with one or two legends from the past. When is it from ?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/paid-the-bills.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-1rr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5548,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions\/5548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"frankie](\"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/frankie-howerd.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n#<\/s>LegiaWarszawa<\/b><\/a>, has been stood down from <\/span>#<\/s>UEFA<\/b><\/a> due to failing a fitness test.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n![\"Embedded](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/BvQlm5CCYAMNp-F.jpg:large\")
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