Ronny Deila believes that Celtic’s Champions League defeat to Malmo was the result that triggered the end of his time in Glasgow.
Celtic’s slender 3-2 win in the first leg was overturned with almost every failing on show as Age Hareide’s side qualified to meet Real Madrid and PSG in the money spinning group stage.
Celtic failed to win any of their Europa League group matches and although they are on course for a fifth title Deila believes that the tide turned against him in Sweden.
“I don’t feel we’ve created what we could’ve done,” he reflected. “At the same time the pressure’s building and it’s getting harder to get what you want. It’s fun when the team’s playing well all the time and improving consistently but when you’re not getting that, it’s not fun to play.
“I’ve been here two years now. We were on a great run last year, we didn’t lose a game almost after Christmas and went into Europe very strong but the bad performance in Malmo changed things.
“After that Virgil wanted to go, we’d already lost Jason Denayer, and things became very difficult. Over the last six months I haven’t seen the big improvement in things and when the pressure’s growing as it is now then it is tough to continue.”
Straight after that defeat Deila said: “We were not even close to the level we can be at. We looked very uncomfortable on the ball.
“We didn’t want the ball and looked very frightened and scared. That’s so disappointing. It was not like one player here or there, it was a team performance which was not at the level we can expect in these games.
“We lose and win together. This is my responsibility. This team was not up to the level we can be and I am part of that. I am the leader of this team. There is some very hard learning.
“We knew if we were at our best we had a very good chance to go through but we were not even close to that kind of performance. Malmo deserved to go through.”