Former Celtic manager claims he could manage Real Madrid

Celtic have had some great managers in recent years as well as some mediocre ones. That has not stopped the club from being consistently successful. They have won 11 out of the last 12 league titles and five domestic trebles over the last seven seasons. That is quite the run for any team in the world.

One manager who did achieve success at Celtic but nothing extraordinary is Ronny Deila. He was at the club a couple of seasons and considering the situation of the Rangers during that period of time, one could argue that the Norwegian underdelivered.

His run would be followed by Brendan Rodgers’ first reign as Celtic manager and the Northern Irishman brought historic success to the club domestically. Incidentally, he now finds himself back in the Parkhead hot seat.

On the other hand, Deila’s career has gone quite well since leaving Celtic. He is now the manager of Club Brugge in Belgium.

Former Celtic manager claims he could manage Real Madrid

Deila seems to have admitted that the Celtic job might have come a bit too early for him. As reported by The Scottish Sun, he said:

"“Few people can imagine how enormous the pressure is at Celtic. It is one of the largest clubs in the world.“And I came from Strømsgodset, a small club at European level, comparable to, say, Eupen here in Belgium, where there are only 7 to 8,000 supporters in the stands.“At Celtic there were suddenly 60,000 and the club has a total of 10 million fans worldwide.“The city of Glasgow is crazy about football.“You have to win there. I wasn’t ready for it. I simply couldn’t prepare for something like that.“Mentally it was challenging, to the extent that the fun was gone at the end. I was up. Then you have no chance.But I would absolutely do it again. I am very proud of my progress there.“I built a team full of young players who were virtually unbeatable in the years that followed.“At the time it was tough. The step was too big. It was like going from first grade to sixth grade.“It will never be as hard as it was then.“But because I have now acquired the necessary knowledge. I now even dare to say that I could manage any team…even Real Madrid.“Because of Celtic I feel I am up for any challenge.”"

It will be interesting to see how things go from here for Deila. He has made some decent progress in recent years and Club Brugge are definitely one of the top clubs in Belgian football.

If he can succeed there, then a more high-profile job may come calling. It is hard to imagine that he would ever be back at Celtic though. As for Real Madrid, chances are that opportunity might never come calling.

As for Celtic, they were in need of a manager this summer with Ange Postecoglou leaving. And they did a great job going out and getting the best option available in Rodgers. It has been a bit of a sticky start but it looks like the Hoops are finding their feet once again.