Scott Allan has given an unlikely account of Ronny Deila’s nutritional regime during his two year reign as Celtic manager.
The Norwegian prompts mixed reactions from Celtic supporters, all will acknowledge him as a ‘nice guy’ but his ability as a manager is treated differently.
Some fans will point to a dire style of football that was emptying the ground game by game with Carlton Cole and Colin Kazim Richards among his signings while others will point to a revolutionary who was at the club at the wrong time, undermined by senior players hostile to his plans and thinking.
An early claim during the Deila years was that the diet and nutrition of the players was altered. Chips, tomato sauce and fizzy drinks were off the menus as the era of the 24-hour athlete was introduced.
Allan joined Celtic halfway through Deila’s two year reign but found the players enjoying Fry Up breakfasts before training rather than some carefully planned Nutritional programme.
The diet was billed as High Protein, with a fitness routine involving balance and pre-activation also catching Allan by surprise.
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44 min 30 seconds
I came from Hibs where the diet, from a guy Flanny who is now at Rangers, was eating the best of the best, simple and healthy eating, going to Celtic and there was fry ups out for breakfast.
I’m diabetic, I’m going from Hibs in the Championship to Celtic, a big European team and we had haggis and bacon out for breakfast.
I swear to God, we had scrambled eggs, bacon, haggis. Strawberries and cream, that was Ronny’s favourite
Kenny MacIntyre: I thought it was the other way, that was the impression that I had
SA: It was a high fat diet; you’re meant to burn more fat for energy
KM: So I’m guessing training was tough then to burn that off.
SA: That’s why we were blown after 80 minutes every time. We were doing all sorts, we used to dance in front of these mirrors before training. You would hold your hips, lift your knee. I’ve never seen it anywhere else that I’ve ever been. It must have been a Norwegian thing at the time.
It was supposedly a high fat diet so that you burned more energy. I went to the Diabetic Clinic and they asked why my cholesterol was through the roof, I said ‘Because Ronny is feeding us fry ups!’
After a week I went back to my old stuff, I was eating breakfast in the house rather than go upstairs for breakfast. Even the Diabetic Clinic were asking about a problem with my cholesterol ‘How is cholesterol so high, I’m at Celtic, we get fry ups for breakfast.
