Few tenures as a manager at Celtic Park were as awful as the two-year tenure of Ronny Deila. After barely winning the Scottish Premiership and getting bounced by the Championship side version of Sevco, Deila was not long for Celtic anymore.
In his place has come Brendan Rodgers, and the Bhoys have gone on to be a massive success to say the least this season.
However, all of that success should go down to Deila if you are to believe the ex-manager.
Deila gave an interview in Norway, which The Daily Record gave us excerpts from and that included the ex-Celtic manager trying to take some credit for what is happening at Celtic Park this season.
“I’m very pleased that that many of the players I had doing are doing fine now,” said Deila.
“For me, it is a gratification, I’m not a trophy hunter, I operated by creating things. And I have been very clear on this.
“Virgil van Dijk was sold for £15 million – Celtic’s biggest ever transfer.
“Who was involved in that?”
Let us unpack all of that for a minute. Seriously, you aren’t a trophy hunter? Then why the heck are you managing the game? Trophies are what it is all about at Celtic, and if you don’t care about winning them every time you step on the pitch then it is a damn good thing you aren’t wearing the Celtic crest on your training kits anymore.
Rather than being embarrassed that he couldn’t get the job done with the “same players” as Rodgers, Deila seems to be celebrating as if he had something to do with what is happening this season? O.K., sure, that makes a lot of sense.
What does make sense is Deila being impressed at what Rodgers has done, because he has transformed this side and made some key moves for this side.
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Deila would never have gotten the likes of Scott Sinclair or Moussa Dembele to come north of the border. Heck, he couldn’t even get the best out of Scott Brown or Craig Gordon, let alone having the vision to make fringe squad players in to key components of success.
Sure, Deila brought in some of the key components like Leigh Griffiths, Eric Sviatchenko, Jozo Simunovic and Dedryck Boyata. However, outside of Griffiths the rest of this group has maximized their potential under Rodgers and not Deila.
Boyata was awful when he first got here, Simunovic was not good before getting injured and Sviatchenko was solid, but unspectacular last season.
Credit Deila for seeing the potential, but he also had so many fails on the transfer market and on loan signings these are the exception to the rule of his two-year tenure at Parkhead. The list of failure is so long it wouldn’t be worth listing them all here.
I will say this for Deila, at least he has the guts to admit who the better manager is.
“Is Brendan Rodgers a better coach than me?” Deila asked. “He may well be … he is one of the world’s top club managers and has been Liverpool boss.”
One thing is for certain, what is happening in 2016-17 has nothing to do with what Ronny Deila did at Celtic. It is all down to Rodgers and his ability to maximize the potential of his squad.
Without that, the Hoops aren’t likely still unbeaten and looking to make history as one of the best teams ever to grace Scottish football.
Next: Boyata Example of Rodgers Brilliance as Manager
That’s something Ronny Deila could only dream of, so stop trying to take a bit of the apple that you wish you could’ve had.