Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Fear of failure to drive Ronny Deila and Celtic into group stages

Post Thumbnail

Ronny Deila is desperate for his Celtic players to remove fear from his life.

The Parkhead boss is on a mission for the club to reach the group stage of the Champions League.

They begin their campaign in the second qualifying round and face Stjarnan of Iceland at home on Wednesday.

Last season they made it through two stages, although only after Legia Warsaw were thrown out for fielding an ineligible player.

Celtic couldn’t take advantage of that second chance and crashed out against Maribor.

Losing to the Slovenians was a sore one for everyone at the club.

Deila hates the thought of a similar disappointment this time.

He said: “It doesn’t annoy me at all but I hate the feeling I had in my body at that time.

“That is a feeling that I fear and that fear drives me on.

“I hate losing, that’s in my blood.

“When I think back, we just weren’t good enough.

“Qualifying for the Champions League is a very hard task because we have to go through three rounds at the very start of the season.

“We must face good opponents so it’s tough and it will be a big achievement if we can get there.

“But I am going into these qualifiers in a much more confident mood and I know the players feel the same way.

“I have never been to the Champions League and it is the dream for every coach to have a team in there.”

The Norwegian was under severe pressure during the early part of last season.

Failure in Europe and an uncertain start in the Premiership had people questioning the wisdom of Celtic appointing a young coach from Scandinavia.

Things are a lot different now.

The Parkhead faithful can’t get enough of Deila and his “Ronny Roar” celebration.

He admits the early days of his time in Scotland were stressful.

He said: “Maybe I wish I had done things differently but, at the time, there were a lot of new things to deal with.

“When you come to a new country, it’s a different culture, a new language and new players.

“I could name 100 things that are different from what I was used to before.

“So there was a transition for everyone, but we are in a better place now than we were one year ago.”

Deila has brought a new attitude and new methods to Celtic.

One example is the way he mapped out a long-term plan to restore James Forrest to full fitness.

He said: “We have to be patient. For me James was at 40%, now he is on 60-70%.

“If we get him up to 100%, then everybody knows what his potential is.

“Last year he wasn’t in a good shape his whole core and everything was not right.

“But we dealt with that and he is getting more and more powerful.”

Midfielder Nir Biton is confident there will be no slip-ups this time.

He said: “Last season was a little bit difficult for us because there were a lot of changes in the club.

“We had a new gaffer and new players.

“He wanted us to do things that we didn’t do before, so we weren’t used to it.

“After that, everyone saw we improved our game and played very well.

“I think we will do good things in the Champions League.”