Colin Kazim-Richards was only at Celtic for some months. He joined the club in early February of 2016 and was gone that very summer. Even in that short spell of time, one manager was able to make quite an impression on the former Turkish international and not the kind he would have been hoping for.
Ronny Deila’s spell at Celtic Park was underwhelming. Yes, the club continued to win the league but they were expected to do that.
Brendan Rodgers would replace Deila as Celtic manager and showed what was possible with the team, creating a treble-winning machine that won twelve straight trophies in Scotland. The Northern Irishman would himself leave after two-and-a-half seasons and is now back for a second stint in the Parkhead hot seat.
It looks like Kazim-Richards was not impressed at all by what he saw under the management of Deila. And he has played for a long list of clubs during his career, so he surely has come across his fair share of coaches.
Kazim-Richards calls former Celtic boss the ‘worst coach’
As reported by the Daily Record, Kazim-Richards said while talking on the Filthy Fellas, the former Celtic player said:
"“You asked who’s the worst coach, he’s the worst coach. We won the league that year but got beat in the cup final as well. Celtic, massive team.“Out of respect I am giving you answers as we can sit here and joke and tell you he’s this and that. But from my perspective, it was more like, I like to learn and once you stop learning at whatever situation you’re in, you become stale.“It’s because you aren’t learning. I think with Ronny Deila, there was nothing he was doing that any of us was learning. There was no motivation, no communication, no relatedness and on the pitch one thing he was not good at is tactics.”"
Deila might have won trophies during his time at Celtic, but his reputation was certainly not enhanced during that period of time. He had to rebuild his coaching career after leaving Parkhead and certainly seems to have grown a lot as a result of the experience. He is back managing in European football once again now.
After leaving Celtic, Deila spent time in Norway at Valerenga before heading for the MLS to coach New York City FC. He impressed there and got himself a move to Standard Liege. Another solid spell earned him a switch to Club Brugge, the club he is currently managing in Belgium.