Why why why Deila?

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The world's gone mad, I agree with Gordon Waddell.


THE problem with our national football psyche? Too often our players arrive at good enough and think that’s their destination.

That they should settle right down when they’ve arrived and never bother their backsides to see what’s beyond. That’s why Ronny Deila ’s demands of his squad have been back page news for a week now and why it says far more about us than it does about him. The fact any athlete in this country would resist the kind of cultural change that is designed to make them be all they can be is nothing short of a disgrace.

No wonder Ronny’s bemused. His players are looking at him like he’s L. Ron Hubbard. We still talk about sports science in this country like a manager’s trying to introduce voodoo into a player’s daily regime. That’s how bad it is for managers sometimes. Like they’re the head of a religious cult. A freak trying to brainwash his charges into daring to be aspirational. Not the guy simply trying to make his team realise that even tiny changes, tiny gains, can make you better, quicker, stronger, harder. Listen, Deila’s far from alone. Look at the interview elsewhere in this section with Jim McIntyre. He’s doing exactly the same at Ross County . Jackie McNamara at Dundee United. Paul Hartley at Dundee. They’ve all got modern methods and beliefs aimed at maximising potential for any player.

It’s sports science, not rocket science. The debate took me back to the summer at the Commonwealth Games. The number of athletes you spoke to, full time and part-time, whose sacrifices to get to where they are had you shaking your head in awe. Swimmers, cyclists, runners, judoka, badminton players – their regimes would give most footballers a heart attack just thinking about it. Same with Sir Chris Hoy . Who could forget that documentary, the image of him curled up like a foetus after a training session, in agony after pushing himself beyond the limits of his own endurance. Or Andy Murray . Deila’s use of him as an example was completely apposite this week. An absolute specimen who does more in a day than most of our players do in a week.

But the difference with these guys, with swimmers like Ross Murdoch or Hannah Miley, is they weren’t just interested in being the best in Scotland. Where’s the challenge in that? Where’s the aspiration? They set out to be the best in the world. They weren’t satisfied with being big fish in their own wee pond. And they understood what it would take to get them there. That things like diet were the difference makers, the little one-per-centers that get them to a line 0.01 of a second ahead of the next guy. Look at Novak Djokovic. When he won the Australian Open last year, a six-hour epic with Rafael Nadal, he rewarded himself with a square of chocolate. Not a bar. A square.

No-one’s saying every footballer has to be so extreme but if they want to be better and have a manager prepared to help them get there, why wouldn’t they embrace it?

It’s all well and good saying Kris Commons could eat a pie supper for tea every night and still have the best touch in the Celtic team. Probably true. It’s not the point Deila’s making . He wants Kris Commons to be as good as HE can be, not measured against someone else. And if making him 10 per cent fitter makes him 10 per cent more effective, why not? And as Anthony Stokes says, if every players in your team is 10 per cent more effective, think about the effect that can have on your results. Look at Gareth Bale as another example. Gets to Real Madrid as the most expensive player in the world and rightly thinks he’s an operator. Then sees Cristiano Ronaldo training and realises he can do more. Which he does.

Now you look at him and you see an absolute machine. Anyone who sees anything wrong in Deila trying to get his men to realise their true potential is living in the dark ages. Sure, he’s swimming against a cultural tide. Last year Graeme Souness wrote a great column about a day he was in Dunfermline watching a local high school empty out at lunchtime and form disorderly queues outside a chippy, a baker’s shop and a pizza joint all in a row. He said: “We wouldn’t let drug dealers set up shop outside schools, putting poison into our children, so why allow that?” Healthy eating and access to it, is a whole different debate though. What Deila’s pointing out is that for our professionals, it’s all there for them. But what use is opportunity without motivation?
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Today might have the doom n gloom merchants out
 
pud said:
Today might have the doom n gloom merchants out
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Is it "doom n gloom" to think losing for the second time in 8 league games is f**ing s**te?

The standard of play is awful, the tactics pish. We lack quality in every area, but the manager is doing nothing to convince. Pumped out of europe twice by very average sides and dropping points in 50% of his league games so far. Early days maybe but that's rank rotten by anyone's standards.
 
Admiral Pure said:
Is it "doom n gloom" to think losing for the second time in 8 league games is f**ing s**te?

The standard of play is awful, the tactics pish. We lack quality in every area, but the manager is doing nothing to convince. Pumped out of europe twice by very average sides and dropping points in 50% of his league games so far. Early days maybe but that's rank rotten by anyone's standards.
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Agree 100%, its all very well saying, "give it time", but that was ****ing shocking today.
Absolutely no excuses for it and i dont blame the "doom and gloom merchants". How many fans are going to pay to watch that?
 
DevAdvocate said:
The stats show is was all Celtic. Not a lot more they could have done by the looks, one of those days.
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Yeah not much the manager can do when players miss chances or Hamilton clear off the line...
 
Oh put away the fishing nets you two.

We had a £2m striker on the bench and our goalie up for a corner ... against Hamilton ****ing Accies
 
Is scepovuc not just back from injury?

Probably not fit hence the foetus got out on.

If we're 6th come Xmas then I'll be worried ...a team in transition etc etc
 
pud said:
Is scepovuc not just back from injury?

Probably not fit hence the foetus got out on.

If we're 6th come Xmas then I'll be worried ...a team in transition etc etc
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Agreed. As annoying as this result is I'm unable to comment how good bad or indifferent Celtic were because I never saw it. I have seen games in the past where we've dominated but still lost so i'm going to keep my powder dry until I see us playing really really badly and according to the report that wasn't the case today.

Losing to Hamilton at home is terrible but let's keep the heid. The Press will have the knives out, let them panic for us.
 
pud said:
Is scepovuc not just back from injury?

Probably not fit hence the foetus got out on.

If we're 6th come Xmas then I'll be worried ...a team in transition etc etc
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Come off it Pud.

If he's not "fit" then why the **** is he on the bench? And I'm sure he could manage the last 10mins. We had Van Dijk up front instead. McCoist-esque tactics.
 
You loan peanuts, you get soggy peanuts

I want this to work out for Ronny but I don't think he will get the time and I don't think the board were ever seriously going to back his vision

If we aren't really going to change, and by that I'm talking about the way we sign players on a scouts say, not a managers, or slashing budgets etc, weren't we as well appointing Mjallby?
 
Bring in Lustig for Ambrose, put Brown, Kayal and Johanson together in the middle, play Guidette and Scepovic together up front.

Do that we will win the league at a canter. Still think if the players buy into it, the manager will come good.
 
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