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Fullname: Ronny Deila
aka: Ron Deila, Ronnie Deila
Born: 21 Sep 1975
Birthplace: Porsgrunn, Norway
Manager: 6 June 2014 – 20 May 2016
Succeeding: Neil Lennon
Successor: Brendan Rodgers
Biog
| “I don’t think I am going to get such a big club like Celtic again.” Ronny Deila (2017) |
Arriving at Celtic as very much an unknown quantity, it is fair to say that Celtic had taken a bigger gamble in appointing Ronny Deila than possibly ever before. All of Celtic’s former managers had in one sense or another achieved much as managers or players either at Celtic or some top tier club or country. Ronny Deila was still a work in progress, and despite his achievements in Norway, it was a giant leap to come to Celtic where Champions League matches were something to potentially contend with.
His prior experience in Norway saw him take unfashionable side Stromsgodset and refashion them. He implemented an attacking philosophy which after struggling against near relegation in the first seasons, saw them turn things around and win the Norwegian Premier League, their first top tier title in 43 years.
One of the most oft-noted points from his tenure as manager at Stromsgodset was his bet with the support. The final result led to his having to strip off and then throw his clothes into the crowd after having managed Stromsgodset to the league title. He didn’t repeat that celebration, and thankfully didn’t make any similar bets with such forfeits with the Celtic support.
First season (2014-15)
His start at Celtic began with disaster and then some remarkable events. Losing to a very poor Legia Warsaw side 6-1 on aggregate should have seen a quick exit for Celtic from the Champions League, and a humiliating start for Ronny Deila. However, next thing you know Legia were papped out of the competition on player registration technicalities after the scoreline was reversed to Celtic to 3-0 for the second leg. Celtic progressed on the away goals rule 4-4. Fortuitous and saved Ronny Deila’s bacon.
A lot of lessons had to be learnt fast, and the initial response was negative from the support on the players and manager. Ronny Deila had set out the side to play overly aggressive, and too romanticised in playing attacking football. The defence had gone from being a rock to a sieve, a contrast to the record-breaking unit of the past season.
Disaster then struck again, and Celtic were knocked out by an even poorer side, Maribor of Sweden, losing one nil at home. The defence was a shambles again, and after the first debacle Ronny Deila had not sorted this out. The supporters held their heads in the hands, and Ronny Deila was likely wondering what more could he do. For many, if Celtic fail early in Europe then the season can feel as if it is already over. The support knew the first team were going to win the league, but Europe is where financially all are desperate to make a mark and so help keep heads above water.
Domestically, things were to stutter early on. Aberdeen were a vastly improved side to what they have been, and finally began to mount a genuine challenge. Despite some good results, including a 2-1 win over Aberdeen, most of the first quarter results saw Celtic for what they were becoming. A stuttering side with little self-belief, and no imagination. The signings were little helping with many not being completed until we’d confirmed European competition in the UEFA Cup after August. Defeats to Inverness CT and Hamilton (who were fighting excellently well above their weight) put the clamps on Celtic, and others set the early tone for the league season.
Morale had sunk in the support as had interest, as was being shown clearly in attendances. The play was poor, and many players didn’t seem to be buying into Ronny Deila’s philosophy, whatever that was.
Many fans had already nailed their colours to the mast that he had to be cut soon. Various old players in the papers were getting their tuppence worth too, with Chris Sutton and John Hartson getting digs in and wanting him gone. It didn’t bode well.
Chris Sutton summarised the general opinion on the first team well: “Celtic are too predictable. Teams find it easy to set up against them“.
Yet the board stood by Ronny Deila. Previously this strategy had worked with Lennon but failed with Mowbray, so you can read into that as you want. The board has historically had a higher tolerance threshold than the general supporter on the terrace.
Results turned slowly for the better from late October onwards but slowly giving Ronny Deila a breather.
It wasn’t until Celtic beat Aberdeen 2-1 in the league in what was to be a contentious match that Ronny Deila really let it all out. At the whistle, the victory took Celtic to the top of the league, with the players you could see his relief and emotions as he pumped his fists to the fans and the like. He’d had a lot of pressure and was faulting too often, but now there was some success.
It wasn’t all easy street, and the performances could still be woeful including a drab no score draw at home to Inverness CT in December which saw the critics voice their opinions again. Celtic qualified from the UEFA Cup group stage, but were unconvincing with some very embarrassing results. It was a poor group, but it was the First Team’s first time qualifying from the group stage in this competition and Ronny Deila deserved credit for that at least.
Ronny Deila’s plans were going to take time. A gradual advance. The situation wasn’t helped by the Tonev racism allegations, constant sniping from the media and a squad bloated by some overblown signings. He didn’t help himself either with some post-match quotes.
The real turning point for the support followed town hall meetings in towards the end of 2014 between Ronny Deila and the support. Given the opportunity to speak to the general support in supporters’ meetings, he came across well and convinced many to give him time for his plans. It bought him the time he needed and fostered a good relationship between the club and the support, a difficult act in the modern media age. Many benefits to this and reflected his key skill of communication. Granted in his early days he made some naïve statements to the media, but he’d learnt from those errors.
Ronny Deila’s methods finally came to bear fruit after the turn of the new year. The emphasis on personal conditioning and fitness was evident from the players physique and play, and the results generally bore this out. Must add that this has been John Collins main forte too (his assistant) and having been lampooned for this obsession in the past, many were now admitting their error. The team were beginning to play a far more enjoyable brand of football, and going to Parkhead was once more a pleasure. The passing game emphasised was working and the players were buying into their manager’s philosophy. You could see the results in their general demeanour let alone anything else.
A fine example was Griffiths who having arrived looking as if he had just jumped over the terracing fence onto the pitch, had bulked up, worked hard and the results were there to see. Having endured a difficult transition following some off field shenanigans, he was given support and he was repaying the management with dedication.
Domestically Celtic were peerless, once the performances improved so did the consistency. Celtic finally pulled away in the league and won the title comfortably enough with many entertaining matches in the second half of the season. The league cup was won at a canter, and it was just the Scottish Cup defeat to Inverness CT that was a dampener.
Not winning the coveted treble in the first season was disappointing but maybe the best thing for the long run, either way it would have brought out the worst in the Rangers sympathisers in the media pack.
The gravest issue for Ronny Deila were the transfers. Ironically Guidetti once held as the saviour of the side in his first few months had lost his form once the first team turned the corner into the new year. Plenty of the others like Wakaso, Tonev, Berget and Scepovic were either written off or forgotten. The exception was the incredible form of Denayer who’d struck up a great centre pairing with van Dijk and goalkeeper Craig Gordon. The squad needed work.
Ronny Deila deserves the plaudits and respect for his achievements, yet it must be measured. It may not be pleasant as the Celtic support should all celebrate the victories, yet even the most green-tinted spectator should have been able to admit that this was not the finished article. The team still had to learn to compete for 90mins and be more convincing.
Despite all the domestic achievements it was the disastrous account in Europe (Champions League) that was the main gripe. Excuses can be made but Ronny Deila is where the buck stops for those early season failings. His tactics and naivety are what caused the first team’s premature exit(s) from the Champions League. Granted the first team qualified from the Europa League Group stages, but this was in a poor group of sides and some of the performances & results were still unconvincing, so really Celtic got the rub of the green this time round. The litmus test for the next season was again going to be Europe, and a repeat set of failings was unlikely to be acceptable.
Second Season (2015-16)
Ronny Deila’s second season was to begin early again with the Champions League qualifiers.
At the tail-end of the last season, on the radio, journalists were debating the appropriate attributes required for the potential incumbent at the freefalling TheRangers franchise. After one listed out his idea of the qualities wanted, the others blurted out in unison that actually he had just described Ronny Deila.
So after a fair first season domestically, was Ronny Deila really the man with the right attributes to take the club forward? As with others, the freshman excuse no longer carries weight into the second season. Better in Europe was probably the top of the list of requests from everyone…
…but already it was all over before the season had even really begun.
Ronny Deila’s touch was to desert him soon after the first kick-offs as Celtic were humiliatingly bumped out of the European Cup by Malmo, a club that Ronny Deila had turned down to come to Celtic. Worst was that a key player for Malmo in the matches was Berget whom Celtic had dumped last season (he was poor at Celtic), but it all just rubbed it in.
The performances to get into the Champions League were abject, and the defence floundering with an incredible number of goals conceded from set pieces. The team looked out of sorts and morale was sinking. Ronny had said himself: “We want to be in the Champions League. That’s the goal, I’ve said that since coming to this club”, so by that measure he knew he was not going to last into the long-run.
To make matters worse, Celtic finished humiliatingly bottom in their Europa League group despite it being the least difficult group the club had yet been in. It was a shambles, and Ronny Deila’s time was obviously up. If anything, he should have been cut far sooner than he was and left at the start of the season.
Ronny Deila heavily damaged Celtic’s European standing single-handedly and removed all the fear from teams coming to Celtic Park. His schoolteacher style management had failed spectacularly in Europe, and he didn’t seem to know how to react when under the cosh to make decisions in matches, for example not taking off Izzaguire off in a match when it was evident he was heading for a red card, and duly was given it.
Domestically, little good to add. Aberdeen were optimistic and provided a strong challenge, and really could have won the league. Yet despite numerous poor performances and results, Celtic clung on for the long haul for Aberdeen to finally collapse towards the end and allow Celtic to take the title. Take away the incredible contribution of goals by Griffiths domestically, Celtic could possibly have lost the league.
There isn’t much more to say on the league campaign. It was frustrating, and that can be seen from the floundering stadium attendances which saw the board get it heavily in the neck. The play on the pitch was often poor and mostly unentertaining, and despite a glut of midfielders, there was no settled formation or gelling of the players in the centre of the park. Some players were lost due to injuries or age, but Ronny Deila had been around long enough to plan ahead for the squad. Yet transfers in were poor and more often than not they were making matters worse (e.g. Blackett). The players had seemed to lose motivation, and just could not get going. Only sporadically did the support see the quality as they were seeming to be showing in the latter half of the last season.
The only real good note in terms of players was the development of some youngsters like Tierney and Rogic, but the fact that Celtic were relying on youngsters to get them through didn’t really speak volumes for the older players and Ronny Deila himself. A public bust up with fans’ favourite and elder player Kris Commons didn’t help matters and hindered team development & focus.
It’s hard to know what was the straw that broke the camel’s back. There was such a large number of low moments in the second season that you could take your pick. The board were baffling in their patience but an increasingly cynical support put it down to financial reasoning.
The umpteenth end for Ronny Deila was the defeat on penalties to TheRangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final in April 2016. Despite their second tier status they were not looking far off Celtic on the day of play. The Celtic midfield was disorganised and the defence nervous. Having to substitute central defender Boyata before half time for poor play reflected poorly on Ronny Deila’s starting line-up. Tactics were poor, the performance lacked ambition and the side were relying on 19 year olds and an injured central defender to carry them through.
A few days later, the board announced that Ronny Deila would leave at the end of the season, few bemoaned the decision despite the genuine respect as a person the support had for Ronny Deila.
If anything, the board exasperated the situation when genuinely strong management would have seen Deila cut sooner or at least forced changes in the backroom staff (notably John Collins who had come under a lot of flak). In fairness, Neil Lennon was similarly barracked by the support only for the board to back him, and in that case it worked out. Here the board’s luck ran out but thankfully Celtic still managed to win the league. Besides that, Celtic had lost now two years of development and had gone backwards.
Review
Where should we begin?
In reflection, there is one word that summarises the demands he was under: ‘Treble’. No Rangers (dead), no Edinburgh sides (for his first season) and the obvious financial advantage over all others in the league, meant he was under pressures of expectations to achieve the domestic treble like no manager beforehand (by media, support and any onlooker). It was excessive but there was a certain justification for it.
Ronny Deila was an experiment and an interesting choice having proved himself in Norway, but he was stepping up without the resources or backup that certain of his predecessors at Celtic had. Compounding it all was that satellite TV and megalomaniac billionaire money had created a chasm between the smaller country sides and the rest. The lowest side in the English top tier would receive £100m in TV money, Celtic were to receive peanuts.
As a football manager, Ronny Deila knew the circumstances and understood the challenges, but maybe he didn’t appreciate the intensity or difficulty. He’s an affable bloke and there was never any high profile cases of dissent against the manager (bar one childish incident involving Kris Commons at a match). So that reflected decent man management. However, later there were rumours of cliques of unhappy players but that’s par for the course when a side is on a low ebb.
Ronny Deila spoke of never sacrificing entertainment for results, of setting out his side to play good football, to make progress and to win an edge through a stricter fitness regime. On a positive note, this was aligned to the Celtic Way of playing, and in the last half of his first season, you could see the signs of his regime showing well.
Yet his football philosophy was too simplistic if not naive. Too often he and his assistant harped on about fitness and conditioning, but this was hardly anything new as Strachan was a notable exponent of this in his time (with results to prove its value). A lot of merit here but as the second season was to show, his methods weren’t bearing fruit, and the fitness aspects were seen too often as a smokescreen to his failings. If anything, the fitness levels of the players looked surprisingly poor into the second season.
Tactically Ronny Deila was poor and repeatedly he was found short at every major challenge both domestically and in Europe. It’s fair to say that outwith of the silverware success, defeating TheRangers in the first ever encounter between the clubs was his most notable domestic success for a single match (for reasons of local pride), but they were in the second tier and other major triumphs were too few and far between. In fairness, Ronny Deila did patch the side together to win some important games v Aberdeen when they were Celtic’s toughest challengers.
The most obvious weakness was set-pieces. Time & again, Celtic lost goals from set-pieces, way beyond what should be statistically expected. It was infuriating, and surely this should have been something that could have been easily sorted out in coaching. It led to fellow coach, John Kennedy, getting pelters for it, whom many assumed was responsible for defensive duties.
The midfield in the second season was all over the place. Despite an imbalance in the squad to the midfielders, the coaches struggled to find any combination of midfielders that performed consistently together. They were disjointed and underperforming, and that despite having some genuine class amongst them. They looked uninterested or simply demoralised.
In fairness, it should be remembered that he did manage the first team to qualify out the group stages of the Europa League in his first attempt, an important point despite any qualifiers. Against Inter Milan in the next round Celtic competed well to recover and drew the opening leg in a pulsating 3-3 match at home (likely the best match under his spell), but then the Italians won at home. It showed promise for the next season but it ended up being an exception.
Most humiliating was finishing bottom the next season in the poorest Europa League Group Celtic had yet played in. The first team were out of sorts to put it politely and struggling to even challenge lower tier sides. So maybe the Europa League matches was a microcosm of his time at Celtic.
You could list all his failings in important matches but that is too long a list to bother posting here. He failed in his second season to learn from his errors in his first. Possibly some of his failings were masked by the excellent form of the defence in his first season, but despite the knowledge that the great van Dijk and Denayer partnership was to go at the end of the season, he failed to adequately plan ahead for it.
Curiously any argument that he was on a learning trajectory could be countered in that even against Scandinavian opposition in Europe, Celtic came unstuck badly.
Other managers seemed to know how to pitch up against Ronny Deila and win, Celtic were that predictable. That wasn’t just seasoned sides but also smaller clubs at home. In many ways Ronny Deila should be thankful of Aberdeen’s propensity to collapse and that they did. Aberdeen themselves know that the league title was theirs for the taking in Ronny Deila’s second season, and for much of the season were not far off it.
His assistant, John Collins, didn’t help with at times unnecessary comments in the press that irked or frustrated others by for example writing off the rest of the Scottish challenge as the reason for Celtic’s unconvincing European form. With Aberdeen breathing down Celtic’s neck in the league, he was made to look foolish. The pair together were not winning favour with the support.
Transfers were the most contentious area. The squad had been overburdened with a whole strew of midfielders, a number of whom had proven themselves in patches at least. The strikers’ goal tallys were abysmal (bar Griffiths). The club struggled to find even a competent and consistent striker beyond Griffiths for the first team. Central defenders were a travesty in the second season. Yet was Ronny Deila the one calling the shots? Or were the board controlling the ins and outs? Ronny Deila claimed it was him but there were plenty of sceptics using this belief to beat the board down.
On the other hand it must be added that a few players owe him a great debt. Tierney, Forrest, Rogic, McGregor and Griffiths were young and developing, and despite discordant voices at points against certain of them, Ronny Deila was pragmatic and measured in his approach to them. All were given opportunities to develop and evolve, and it worked very well. If anything, this set of players were a buffer for the manager, and maybe reflected where his true strengths most likely were. With the incredible form of all these players in later years, he saved Celtic a fortune in transfer fees.
It wasn’t going to work out long-term. Ronny Deila deserves some credit for not being a quitter, but he really should have been moved on far sooner than he did. He was out of his comfort zone at Celtic in the top seat, and no amount of Ronny Roars were going to change that.
It was all going out on a whimper, but he should be fondly remembered. Ronny Deila won two league titles as Celtic manager, that is a great achievement which must be respected. He should be remembered best for the league titles and for being the first Celtic manager to manage the team to qualify out of the Europa League Group stages, a minor achievement but to that time it was still a significant monkey that the club needed off its back.
The irony is that having failed to win the coveted domestic ‘Treble’, his successors began a golden era for Celtic in achieving domestic trebles!
His legacy was to be in part that of the success of those young players he helped develop and let flourish under his management, some of whom went on to achieve so much at Celtic and beyond. Van Dijk went on to be one of the world’s top players, and so owes some debt in part to Ronny Deila & his coaching team.
We wish him the best.
Post-Celtic
After Celtic, he soon returned home to manage Valerenga in another stint that didn’t work out. However, in a surprise move he moved to the US to manage New York City FC, in what was to be a very successful time for Ronny Deila, guiding them to the MLS Cup in 2021. He even took on ex-Celt, Efrain Juarez, as his assistant in the reign.
He proved doubters wrong, and after success in the MLS he was deservedly appointed as the manager at Standard Liege (Belgium) in 2022, proving he was worthy of another shot at a big club in Europe. He then made a controversial move across to Brugges (Belgium) after just a year. It didn’t work out, despite getting them to the quarter-finals of the Conference League, and he was cut again after just one year. The cruel irony for him was that at the end year in November 2024, Brugges faced Celtic in the Champions League group phases at Celtic Park, a match he’d very much like to have been a part of.
He then moved to Al-Wadha in the monied UAE Pro league, and to the surprise of many took ex-Celt Kenny Miller with him as an assistant.
He was to later acknowledge the debt to the experience he gained at Celtic, which helped him through his post-Celtic career, which we can all respect.
[….]
Honours with Celtic
Scottish League
Scottish League Cup
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Statistics
| PREMIER LEAGUE | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home | Away | Total | |||||||||||||||||||||
| SEASON | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | ||
| 2014/15 | 19 | 15 | 2 | 2 | 50 | 8 | 47 | 19 | 14 | 3 | 2 | 34 | 9 | 45 | 38 | 29 | 5 | 4 | 84 | 17 | 92 | ||
| 2015/16 | 18 | 13 | 4 | 1 | 52 | 11 | 43 | 20 | 13 | 4 | 3 | 41 | 20 | 43 | 38 | 26 | 8 | 4 | 93 | 31 | 86 | ||
| Total | 37 | 28 | 6 | 3 | 102 | 19 | 90 | 39 | 27 | 7 | 5 | 75 | 29 | 88 | 76 | 55 | 13 | 8 | 177 | 48 | 178 | ||
| LEAGUE CUP | SCOTTISH CUP | ||||||||||||
| SEASON | P | W | D | L | F | A | P | W | D | L | F | A | |
| 2014/15 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 4 | |
| 2015/16 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 2 | |
| Total | 7 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 23 | 6 |
| Champs Lge | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Home | Away | Total | ||||||||||||||||||
| SEASON | P | W | D | L | F | A | P | W | D | L | F | A | P | W | D | L | F | A | ||
| 2014/15 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 6 | ||
| 2015/16 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 5 | ||
| Total | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 20 | 11 |
| UEFA Cup | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Home | Away | Total | ||||||||||||||||||
| SEASON | P | W | D | L | F | A | P | W | D | L | F | A | P | W | D | L | F | A | ||
| 2014/15 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 15 | ||
| 2015/16 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 12 | ||
| Total | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 11 | 13 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 10 | 14 | 14 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 21 | 27 |
| Total | ||||||
| SEASON | P | W | D | L | F | A |
| 2014/15 | 61 | 41 | 10 | 10 | 133 | 42 |
| 2015/16 | 57 | 35 | 13 | 9 | 122 | 55 |
| Total | 118 | 76 | 23 | 19 | 255 | 97 |