I’ve spoken to many Celtic fans over the last couple of days but I’ve not met one who would have preferred Roy Keane to be our manager instead of Ronny Deila. Despite some impeccable references, Ronny is a largely unknown character, but there is an appreciation among the support that we need to come up with a plan to enable the club to over-achieve in Europe.
The man’s performance at the media conference was faultless. It’s not important to quick-witted but his use of words like “energise” and “offensive” is promising. Football is in the entertainment business and Ronny appears to appreciate the link between the way his team perform, not just their results, and the ultimate satisfaction supporters’ leave the ground with.
Our thanks to the Greenock Celtic Supporters Club for hosting last night’s CQN Lions fundraiser for the Celtic FC Foundation. We were fortunate to be entertained by Willie Wallace, John Hughes and Bertie Auld, it was a fantastic night, full of laughs.
Special thanks to those who attended and helped raise over £2000 for the Foundation, and to those who promised to get involved with the Foundation. The club is in good hands with supporters like those in Greenock last night. Big shout to Joe and Mick for bringing a familiar old friend along.
Visit the CQN Bookstore to get Tommy Gemmell to sign your personal copy of his tome, All the Best.
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Re. the 1970 World Cup Final. I watched the game about two years ago on ESPN. I have to say that I was shocked at how poor a game it was. We have all been brainwashed down through the years by commentators, writers and especially Pele calling it “the beautiful game”. The reality was something different and something I had forgotten through the mists of time.
Yes, the goals were absolutely wonderful and Carlos Alberto’s fourth goal was a thing of great beauty with a fantastic build up which highlighted all the teamwork you could ever hope to see and featured a wonderful dribble by Clodoaldo who beat 4 men and a fantastic lay off by Pele onto the path of Carlos Alberto for the goal. However, what we forget is that the game was lucky to be played at all. There had been overnight storms in Mexico and the pitch had been flooded. A huge effort took place to get the pitch and trackside cleared of water. The pitch was not in the best of condition and the game itself was riddled with petty fouls. The attempts on goal from the resulting free kicks just about all fell into the Sebo category with the ball clearing the crossbar by about 20 or 30 feet. There were 5 goals, however, and each of them were gems scored whenever football broke out.
If you ever get a chance to see it again do not miss it!
Cliftonville Celtic
Thanks.
Never saw the game that night so had no idea. Absolutely appalling.
However had read a history of Belfast Celtic so I know the details of the horror that they
were subjected to.
Interesting times ahead…………maybe all it needs is a different view of the same players with a couple of choice additions?
Curiously enough EIGHT of the Lions were already at Celtic under Jimmy McGrory and we were doing hee-haw.
JS came along….added Ronnie Simpson, Bertie Auld and Willie Wallace……bingo!
Formula?……A blend of experience, youth, guile, craft, pace, athleticism and belief.
It was the same formula used by……
Matt Busby at Man Utd
Bob Paisley at Liverpool
Ron Saunders at Aston Villa
Brian Clough at Nottingham Forrest
If we do not continually sell the players from under Ronny Deila…..and acquire the experience just as JS did then just maybe he can make the slot machine line up……!
I think he will do as well as NFL domestically……..CL success is down to the support he receives from Desmondo, Lawell and Bankier really…….
Just an opinion…..
Enjoy your dram PC67?
Its a wee cracker is it not? With or without ice,……………………….or other additives or appendages.
a ceiler gonof rust
00:53 on 8 June, 2014
Last time I got 28/1 was the night we pumped Barcelona at paradise. Even those odds are a bit fair for das engerlunders.
I’d rather dip ma nubin in a Telfords’s bridge than line a bookies poakit wi those odds.
………………………………..
You are one of the great entertainers on here. Some of your expressions make me laugh out loud.
17 years ago last week we lost this great songwriter
Barcelona
This is just amazing vocal control. Frank Sinatra takes time out from a recording and just hits the beat again effortlessly
Frank Sinatra
Theoriginalsadiesbhoy
I made a similar point about the pitch in the England v Argentina ’86 QF.
It was very bumpy and dry, yet, not once did Maradona mis-control a ball, or waste a pass, before going on to score possibly the greatest goal in the tournament’s history, made all the more special by the importance of the match, and the playing conditions in which he scored it.
I haven’t got a great memory, by the way. The match was replayed in its entirety on the BBC website the other day.
Our first priority for next season…The Green Brigade.
Our young fans need a focal point…these Bhoys are it.
Beatbhoy
I know what you’re saying. Yes Spain are fantastic and the most attractive footballing side should win for the good of football. The England commentators and media drive me mad. They always resort to xenophobia when things start to go wrong. I enjoy watching the Premiership on TV. I like players like Sturridge, Gerrard, Rooney etc and as I said Big Fraser is one of our own players. I know that they won’t win it but while they are in it, I’ll be supporting them. I have never ever supported them in a tournament before but I’m trying to grow as a person and put some of my old prejudices behind me.
If I open another bottle, tomorrow will be scratched from my life’s calendar. So i bid you all buenos noches.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaAoFHymJVg
See the Sunday Mail running with Ronny was to be RK no.2.
Really don’t se why the club would have went down the RK route just did not fit with the strategy Ronny did.
SFTB, outstanding links bruv.
Hail Hail
Theoriginalsadiesbhoy
I’m sure the commentators etc, will add rising degrees of difficulty to the challenge you have set yourself as the tournament goes on!
Ach here ye go! Watch and weep!
Hail hail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RFECzUMNZM&feature=kp
Teuchter
Just canny mind mate.
Could be.
But New Zeland keeps appeRing in an Heid.
Too much drink
Night bud
Night all
Ha Ha TOSB, I’ve never been called a great entertainer before, I’m blushing.
Wiz it the word nubbin that made you laugh? My bhoy called me that today after a particularly bad shot on the burnside 6th. It was bad enough that I duffed the shot but for him to then shout “Dad, what a f***in nubbin”………………Cheeky wee bass.
Fred C Dobbs, a quick look at the available tickets shows section 111 has zero availability. Does this mean the GB are back?
I really do hope so.
ACGR
Thanks. The Sinatra outtake is really impressive. Johnny Cash once said that Bob Dylan could rhyme the tick of time but Frankie Boy could make that tick swing.
You over that wee unpleasant nightshift from a few nights back?
a ceiler gonof rust,
Let it be so :o).
In fact, looking at that stadium map there’s still a few prime seats in the NS upper 405/406 towards the front.
I’m swithering and thinking of parking my principles for another chance to drive four and a half thousand miles to salivate over the magnificent Glasgow Celtic.
The head still says naw but the heid says &^%&&^*(&^(*&^(*^(*&^
I had my wee mammy up with me this evening and we watched a wee sentimental Irish-American film by John Ford, The Long Grey Line.
There were a couple of cracking lines.
In his character as Marty Maher, he was asked by the cadets to list his all time Army NFL football select and he said “That’s a great way to make 11 friends and 10,000 enemies”. That’s a line our Tommy Gemmell should have used for his book.
In another exchange with Maureen O’Hara, Tyrone Power came out with a cracking line:-
TP- Sure, there’s hard times back in Ireland now.
MO’H- There’s hard times for a poor working man everywhere
TP- Not if he owns a pub in a hard-drinking locality
SFTB, Mr BB and myself conversed via mail and everything is cool. The posts that were left though showed only one side of the story.
ACGR
It’s good to know that it’s sorted and I was not passing judgement on anyone. This place can erupt without warning sometimes and you often don’t know why you are being attacked.
Fred C, if I knew the GB were back in their rightful place in paradise I’d bite back my earlier painful decision not to renew and snap up one of them 406’rs. That was 50% of the reason I resolved I’d not renew because of. The remaining 50% is still to be addressed and that may or may not happen next season.
As I say,………………………….swithering, but with my credit card in my hand.
ACGR, go oan go oan, you know ye want to renew……………
n btw, gie er bhoy a boot in the erse or they comments.
Job going well.
Bma
ACGR, just read that back there, to much red wine.
Bma
SFTB, indeed. Myself and BB have some history in that department and I wasn’t having it a second time from him.
I made one comment I now regret but strangely enough, he thanked for it and said it was the boot up the arse he needed.
Blessed are the peace makers, and the cheese makers.
Acgr,
Get it renewed, you know want tooooo.
Tim, through and through, or I won’t give you a handicap at the pool. :))
ACGR
Good to hear it ended well and, as I have drink taken this night, I will head to my bed too.
BMCUW,
Too much cider in my case :)
BMA, you can never have too much red my friend.
Glad to hear you’re doing well. I’ll mail you in the week.
HH bruv
Sipsini, I’m still working on the pass out for the pool but I think it’s a foregone conclusion that as I’ll be in fife for the sclaffbaw and the pool is nearby……………..and mrs acgr isn’t, she can GTF.
As long as I get home sunday all should be well on planet ACGR, I think?
Acgr,
I’m sure you will sweet talk your good lady around :)
ACGR, enjoy the rest of the weekend, talk later.
Bma
The red has won
Sipsini, she’s a big wummin and she gets a bit possessive if I don’t clock in at least five times a day. Evey day is a risk for me…………………………ha ha:-)
She’s from Dumfries ye ken like, n’at.
Sent you a text bruv.
From the Scotsman
Ronny Deila aims to tune mentally with his players
Ronny Deila making his first public appearance at Parkhead this week. Picture: SNS
by ANDREW SMITH
Updated on the
08 June
2014
02:04
Published 08/06/2014 01:13
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THERE may have been only one man sitting alongside chief executive Peter Lawwell at Friday’s press conference, but the inescapable impression is that Celtic made two football appointments this week – a head coach and a life coach.
THERE may have been only one man sitting alongside chief executive Peter Lawwell at Friday’s press conference, but the inescapable impression is that Celtic made two football appointments this week – a head coach and a life coach.
There seems to be no demarcation between the two in the eyes of new Celtic manager Ronny Deila. It is why the 38-year-old Norwegian feels prepared for the step up that his move to the Scottish champions represents. A monumental step up, indeed, when his only other coaching experience has been six years in charge of Stromsgodset.
Deila is the small-time player who became a small-time manager, and has now been catapulted into the pivotal role of a club that, with its support and regular access to the Champions League, is a name.
So often such clubs also take on a “name” player to guide them. Celtic would have done just that had Roy Keane wanted the job, but Deila feels the absence of a gilded career has been no roadblock to his ambitions. Not when the impressive figure feels he can call on intellectual and inspirational qualities that are often lacking within these stellar performers.
“It’s OK to do that [work your way up without being a name]. To be a manager, you have to be educated,” he says. “You have two parts. One is about football and if you have played 100 Champions League games then of course you have an advantage. You have been there. But the other 50 per cent is leadership – to treat people right. To make them feel in a good way and progress.
“In that part, I have a lot of education. And it’s about personality as well. The hard way is sometimes the best way. For me, it’s about learning through experiences. Everybody makes mistakes. Learn from the positives and do it again, but also learn from mistakes.
“What mistakes have I made as a manager? I’ve been naked…I’ve made many mistakes. One of the biggest was in my first year as a manager when I lost six games in a row. I hope that’s the only time that happens. Every match was going wrong and the pressure was harder. I stopped believing in people. I thought I was the leader and the only man who had answers. I pushed everybody away.
“I told them all: ‘This is not good enough.’ And it got worse. Everything was so bad. But then I asked: ‘What is happening here? You have no energy.’ They said: ‘Everything is perfect but we are mentally tired because of the demands.’ I then understood what I had done wrong.
“You have to work with people, not push them down when you think you are on top yourself. You have to see a humanistic side to people, to believe they want to perform, want to do well, want to develop – they just need the responsibility. So I learned, I changed it, and they won the week after. If you lose games, you have to think of the same things. That was a mistake I made that I learned very quickly from.”
It is remarkable how much enthusiasm there has been for Deila’s elevation among the Celtic support. The attraction of the new and different is patently powerful. In one sense, Celtic have hired the Norwegian Stuart McCall. The top flight from which the new Celtic manager has arrived is essentially the Scottish top tier without the Glasgow club. Deila achieved his title win last year with the ninth biggest budget of the 16 teams in the Tippeligaen. McCall’s Motherwell have been the best of the Scottish league without Celtic in the past two seasons while operating with the sixth highest football spend out of 11 rivals. Both men have built teams with off-cuts, enthusiasm and a willingness to pursue results by scoring a few goals, and losing a few goals.
It is not McCall that has been bracketed with Deila, though, but such as Liverpool’s Brendan Rodgers, Borussia Dortmund’s Jurgen Klopp and Manchester City’s Manuel Pellegrini. The Chilean is dropped into conversation by the Norwegian himself.
“It’s about leadership, about the modern type of football trainer,” Deila says. “The trainer who is always kicking their players and saying they’re not good enough have distance from their players. [Not] the new ones, like Klopp, Rogers and Pellegrini. I talked to him, he is close with his players, he’s calm and he has one style of playing which made them champions.”
Deila does see himself as much mentor as manager. “Of course. When you have players at this level they have goals and they are there to perform. They want to go far. Some of them want to win trophies and many of them want to go to the next stage.
“Celtic are a big club but if we had the same money as the other clubs then everyone would stay here. That is the difference. That is the way it is now. But they have energy to be better. I can’t do the work for them but I can help them get better. I can help them reflect on what is around them and what they use their energy on and what they don’t use their energy on.”
Deila did all of that for Celtic midfielder Stefan Johansen. He takes pride in his transformation of the career of the midfielder he acquired on a Bosman and sold for £1.5m. “Stefan had a hard time before he came to Stromsgodet. He was out the team at his club Bobo/Glimt and unhappy. His career was almost going under.
“I thought if we get something out of this then it is a positive and if not it is no problem because there was no financial outlay. I heard before he came he had problems with his attitude but from the first day he arrived he worked very hard.
“If you are not in the team you can say the manager is a bad manager. But you have to think ‘why am I not in the team?’ Stefan was always patient. It took him over a year to get into the team and he was ready then. He replaced Anders Konradsen, who joined Rennes, and after that his career has gone upwards. He must still work hard to keep getting better. Everyone must take the barrier even higher.”
Deila has no problems with the fact that he will still be expected to buff up unpolished gems for selling. “[At Stromsgodset] I said to the boys, also to Stefan, that I am going to drive you there if you get a possibility. It is true. Because if you make people get their dreams that is what it is all about. You can talk about trophies, and I want to win, but if you can do something with people that they progress and fulfil their dreams, then that gives me energy. If someone calls from Barcelona, and says they want one of our players, then fantastic. It is like Stefan now at Celtic, he has won the championship, and it is an unbelievable achievement for him.”
And yet winning the championship is no real achievement for anyone at Celtic; it is a given, as Deila’s predecessor Neil Lennon ruefully discovered. As with Lennon, the Norwegian will be judged on his ability to win through three qualifying rounds in the Champions League, even though the first of these ties is a mere five weeks away.
“It takes time but I also think it is very wrong to say I need two years to do something. You have to do it now. I have to come in and do everything I can to take my team in the right direction.”
To stamp his Celtic out as an exciting, attacking team with constantly improving players might be the vision, but he will surely never lose sight of the fact that all else is secondary to winning when it counts.
Ooooops. The piece can be found here
http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl/ronny-deila-aims-to-tune-mentally-with-his-players-1-3436979
It looks like we have knocked Kenny Misser, ( can Sevco afford the extra bills for his sun tan lamps?) off the sports headlines.
From the Herald
Johansen is the poster boy for new Celtic manager Deila’s way of working
Stewart Fisher
Sports Writer
Sunday 8 June 2014
THE Ronny Deila experiment at Celtic doesn’t seem like quite so much of a leap into the unknown when you look at Stefan Johansen.
Ronny Deila has shown he can make his methods work Photograph: PA
The midfielder’s rise and rise brings flesh-and-blood substance to his fellow Norwegian’s boasts about his ability to recruit and develop players with a view to selling them on at a tidy profit.
Comparing Stromsgodset, the unfashionable little outfit from the edge of the Arctic Circle who play to crowds in the low thousands, to the global brand which is Celtic might seem rather odd, but in some ways their modus operandi isn’t so very different. And by anybody’s reckoning, the profit Deila made for Stromsgodset when Johansen was sold to the Parkhead club was a pretty good piece of business.
Deila brought in Johansen and his team-mate Andreas Konradsen from Bodo/Glimt for a combined fee in the region of £100,000. Two years later, Johansen was joining Celtic for £2 million and Konradsen pitching up at Rennes in for £1.5m. It was, as Deila put it on Friday, “OK money”.
“Stefan had a hard time before he came to Stromsgodset,” Neil Lennon’s charismatic successor said. “He was out of the first team at his club and unhappy. Other coaches had given up on him. His career was almost going under.
“I thought ‘if we get something out of this then it is a positive and if not it is no problem because there was no financial outlay’. I heard before he came that he had problems with his attitude but from the first day he arrived he worked very hard.
“If you are not in the team you can say it’s because the manager is a bad manager, but what you really have to think is ‘why am I not in the team?’. Stefan was always patient.
“It took him more than a year to get into the team but he was ready then. He replaced a player who was sold. Since then his career has gone upwards. But he must still work hard to keep getting better. Everyone must take the bar even higher.”
Deila does not mince his words when it comes to the harsh reality of selling players on to bigger clubs in the footballing food chain. Indeed, he embraces the concept. “I said to the boys, to Stefan also, ‘if you have the possibility [of moving to a bigger club] I am going to drive you there’. It is true. If you make people achieve their dreams, that is what it is all about.
“Of course I want to win trophies, but if you can do something with people so that they progress and fulfil their dreams, then that gives me energy. It someone calls from Barcelona and says they want one of our players then fantastic.”
Deila was cautious when it came to commenting on the abilities of the existing Celtic squad, and the topic of potential recruitment.
He has been handed a vast collection of DVDs, video files and statistics to pore over and looks forward to having the club’s scouting network – headed up by John Park – at his disposal.
Getting more product from the promise in the Lennoxtown academy is also a strategic priority, but while the Parkhead club have raided the Scandinavian market on a semi-regular basis, Deila hinted he felt there are only a select few from that part of the world who would be able to exist at Champions League level.
“Stromsgodset are a very small club,” said Deila, a self-proclaimed disciple of Jurgen Klopp and Brendan Rodgers. “We never had scouts. We didn’t buy players. We got them on Bosmans.
“It was a question of talking to the national team coaches and watching football. Now we need players who can play in the Champions League. The players have to have been at that level or are currently at it. Or we need to find players who can be taught to play at that level. You never know where the players will come from.”
This was such an assured performance on his debut in front of the Scottish media that it felt almost incongruous to hear Deila confessing to mistakes earlier in his career, ones indeed which have shaped his “humanist” approach to management.
“I’ve made many mistakes,” he said. “One of the biggest was in my first year as a manager when I lost six games in a row. I hope that’s the only time that happens. Every match was going wrong and the pressure was harder. I stopped believing in people. I thought I was the leader and the only man who had answers. I pushed everybody away.
“I told them all ‘this is not good enough’ and it got worse. You have to see a humanistic side to people, to believe they want to perform, want to do well, want to develop -they just need the responsibility. So I learned – I changed it, and they won the week after.”
So new age, modern, alien even to the environs of Scottish football. Did Friday feel that it was possible to imagine Deila experiencing some resistance from the more sceptical heads in the dressing room? Those same cynics would say that the mood around Celtic Park will change drastically if the Norwegian cannot successfully negotiate Champions League qualifying, which starts in just over a month’s time.
One potential opponent, of course, are none other than Stromsgodset, and it took little encouragement for Deila to mentally change sides of that particular equation. “Before I came here I saw we [Stromsgodset] could draw Celtic and I thought about that,” he said. “You always have a chance to win. Always.
“If you are going to go on the pitch and not thinking that then why are you there? But then … if you are a good team, like we are going to be, you should win games like that.”