Low key Deila keeps award in-house

Ronny Deila kept it strictly in-house as he accepted the SPFL Premiership Manager of the Month award for October from the league sponsors.

These awards aren’t primarily aimed at recognising the award winner but reinforcing the message of the sponsor with plenty of pictures highlighting the trophy with liberal mentions of the sponsor in the surrounding stories.

Deila has been under intense pressure since Celtic’s Champions League exit to Malmo with the Europa League defeat at Molde coming under scrutiny.

No group has been more critical of Deila than the Celtic support who have questioned tactics, signings and almost every aspect of the way that the team is performing.

Willie Miller and others were called in for the product launch with the headlines focussed on the job security, or lack of, the Celtic manager should he fail to make a clean sweep of trophies.

The Manager of the Month award would have been an opportunity to continue on that theme but instead Celtic kept things strictly in house with an interview produced for Celtic TV and quotes appearing on the club website.

Photographs of Deila with the sponsors award were made available to media outlets, last month Derek McInnes refused to be pictured with the trophy due to a dispute with the award sponsors.

Deila will be under the spotlight today to preview the Europa League tie with Molde with a player also made available for questioning.

Last week’s SPFL sponsors product launch was co-ordinated by Glasgow based Level 5 PR founded by James Traynor.