Ronny Deila will keep his job even if Celtic are dumped from the Europa League next week after what the Parkhead chief executive on Friday described as a “bitterly disappointing” campaign. The Hoops are currently rooted to the bottom of Group A and if they lose when Ajax visit the east end of Glasgow next Thursday Deila’s players will have no further interest in Europe.
Since beating Malmo in the first leg of the Champions League playoffs on August 19, Celtic have failed to win in five European ties and have conceded 13 goals in six games. “This season we have stumbled in Europe,” said Peter Lawwell, who sat beside Deila at the club’s annual general meeting.
“It’s bitterly disappointing for everyone at the club. We have to do better. We must do better.”
However, with no rivals who can deploy anything like comparable resources, Celtic are favourites to win the Scottish treble, a feat the club has accomplished three times – twice under Jock Stein in 1967 and 1969 and most recently under Martin O’Neill in 2001. The Hoops have not been able to take advantage of Rangers’ absence from the top flight of football since the summer of 2012 but, according to the CEO, would have done so last season, had it not been for the failure of the match officials to spot a handball by Josh Meekings of Inverness inside the box during last season’s Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden Park.
“Who knows what would have happened but my view is that we would have gone on to win the treble,” said Lawwell. "We are at the top of the league, in the other two cup competitions and have the chance to go for a treble.
“Ronny is a young manager. We hired him on the basis of fundamental qualities he has got. He is a builder and that takes time.
"You can’t have a knee-jerk reaction after two or three games. We look after our managers here and we give them time to progress.”
Lawwell has thrown his support behind Deila
Lawwell also told the AGM that Deila could exceed Neil Lennon’s achievements as Celtic manager. “Five years ago we were 3-0 down to Kilmarnock at half-time and we had lost to Sion in Europe,” he said.
"In 2010/11 we were out of Europe after losing to Braga and Utrecht. Lenny went on to be a huge success, delivering three-in-a row and Champions League football.
"This is just the start for Ronny and, God willing, he will even surpass Lenny in the years to come."
Asked by Celtic TV how he viewed his first year in charge, Deila said: “A lot of ups and downs. We won the league, in a good way I think, and also it was a big thing to win against Rangers (in the semi-final of the Scottish League Cup).
“In qualification for the Champions League I was disappointed that we didn’t even make it. What disappoints me most is that we concede too many goals. We score many goals but in Europe you get punished hard if you make easy mistakes, especially at home.”
The AGM was, by and large, tranquil as the directors reported a loss of £3.5 million, compared to last year’s profit of £11.1 million, as a result of lower income from player transfers and the absence of Champions League revenue. The £13 million transfer of Virgil van Dijk to Southampton fell outside the accounting period and will be included in the next set of results.
There were, however, contentious issues, one of which – a fan campaign against board member, Lord Livingston of Parkhead, who voted for tax credit cuts in the House of Lords – prompted the Celtic chairman, Iain Bankier, into a fierce denunciation when shareholder, Jim Milligan, called for the non-executive director’s resignation.
“This personal campaign against Lord Livingston is criminally racist. He has been subjected to a torrent of base personal abuse in social media,” Bankier said.
“Some of the messages are criminally abusive. We are grateful that he prepared to dedicate his time and considerable talents to the Celtic board. The fact he is a member of the House of Lords has no difference to the interests of Celtic.”
Bankier also defended Celtic’s continued refusal to pay employees the living wage, although the club last year signed its biggest ever kit deal and despite having 40,000 season ticket holders, stated by Lawwell to be the third highest in the UK behind Manchester United and Arsenal.
“It’s not in the interests of Celtic to sign up for the living wage because the Living Wage Council is a non-statutory body,” said the chairman. “It’s for the Government to balance out all the factors.
“It’s important to us to run the business and the club to the benefit of all the shareholders.”
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