Well into his second season managing Celtic, Ronny Deila really should understand that certain topics and phrases are out of bounds.
Like it or not no domestic defeat is ever acceptable. With a turnover and wage bill that dwarves every other club in the country Celtic are in a unique situation, unlike any other club in Europe.
The mix of demands and expectations have swamped many players and managers in the past with dozens remarking about not understanding the size of the club until they had experienced it from within.
Reactions to Celtic’s Champions League exit last season probably came as a shock to Deila, after getting a reprieve thanks to Legia Warsaw a 1-1 draw away to Maribor teed things up perfectly.
The fall out from failure was brutal, this years failure against Malmo was the final straw for many supporters with the win-less Europa League campaign met with growing unrest.
To use a well-worn phrase a loss today against East Kilbride would have sent criticism off the radar!
The last twenty years have been marred by various numbing cup defeats but taking some sort of comfort from avoiding defeat against a Lowland League side must cause concern at every level of the club.
“I think it would have been very hard if we had lost today, I will admit that,” Deila said after today’s 2-0 win at neutral Airdrie.
“So that was a crucial victory, but I was quite comfortable during the 90 minutes. I will give a lot of credit to them, I think they fought really hard and they tried to play football as well.”
After the week that he’s just had Deila will be relived to have got through today without another defeat.
The last week has seen a sea change in attitude towards the Celtic boss who still seems unaware of the demands of the job.
Losing to East Kilbride would have been much more than ‘very hard’, there’s now an inevitability hanging over Deila as Celtic’s season lurks closer and closer to disaster.
