Deila: Next year we are going to be better than teams like Malmo

Ronny Deila is confident that he can lead Celtic into next season’s Champions League after highlighting the small details that led to finishing bottom of their Europa League group.

A 2-1 defeat at home to Ajax- despite taking the lead through Callum McGregor- brought the campaign to an end with just two points from five matches with 11 goals lost.

After back-to-back campaigns in the Champions League group stages under Neil Lennon next season’s qualifiers will determine whether the hoops return to the top table or remain in the wilderness.

Whether Deila is given another attempt at reaching the last 32 remains open to question but the Norwegian is in no doubt that he is capable of succeeding at the third time of asking.

“We will be ready for next year, that’s the message for all the fans,” Deila vowed.

“I see the small details, you also see the big picture you will see that we had two good games against Qarabag then went to Malmo, it’s about small details.

“The next time we are going to be better than teams like Malmo.

“The games last year against Inter Milan were a little bit better, that’s the level we have to get upto next season. That’s the level that we want to get to, everyone knows what we want, to get into the Champions League.

“We have created a lot of Champions League players and we’re going to do that in the future as well.”

Deila added: “Our season isn’t over, it’s not a case of we stop everything till August, we have a six point lead in the league and are still in every tournament, I think it’s very wrong to think that the season is over.

“I am very disappointed that we are not through, that we haven’t got European football in February.

“We cab only look forward and that’s what I’m doing. This gives me a lot of energy to bounce back, I’ve done it before many times in my career and I’ll do it here.

“I think that a lot of people see the whole picture, it’s not like taking snapshots of the situation. I think that the team is making progress, look at McGregor, KT (Kieran Tierney), you see that Simovic can be a very big central defender. You see Stuart Armstrong is getting better, that Leigh Griffiths is scoring goals.

“You see all the positives but in the end we haven’t been good enough, it’s down to small details, we have conceded easy goals, today we had a lot of chances but over the whole campaign we haven’t been effective enough.

“We can’t give things away, in Europe you get punished very hard, that’s the learning from this campaign, it has to be better when we hopefully get into the next Champions League qualification.”