Deila speaks out against loan deals
After taking charge in June 2014 Deila brought in Jason Denayer, Aleksandar Tonev, John Guidetti and Wakaso Mubarek on loan with mixed results.
Denayer picked up the Young Player of the Year award but played his way out of Celtic’s price range while Guidetti failed to build on the dynamic start he made to his hoops career as his agent talked up interest from other clubs. Tonev and Mubarek barely featured before moving quietly back to their parent clubs.
Last August Tyler Blackett was brought in from Manchester United but the emergence of Kieran Tierney and the arrival of Jozo Simunovic has pushed Blackett down the pecking order. During the summer Celtic were strongly linked with a loan move for Real Madrid’s Martin Oddegard but no business was concluded for the former Stromsgodset teenager.
Weekend reports suggested that Celtic were looking to bring in Manchester City teenager Patrick Roberts but speaking to the Evening Times after the win over St Johnstone Deila made a convincing argument against loan deals.
“I learned a lot last season,” Deila said. “We played some excellent football in the second-half of the season and we were looking very good but then we lost Virgil Van Dijk and Jason Denayer finished his loan spell.
“It meant that there was a lot of work to do there. But, of course, that is an ideal. Football is not always so straight as that.
“I wouldn’t rule out a loan deal because you never know what might happen, but it would be fair to say that we would hopefully be looking at it becoming a permanent move.”