Ronny Deila targets trophy treble at Celtic

John Guidetti opened his Celtic scoring account against Hearts and earned praise from manager Ronny Deila afterwards. Picture: SNS

SO FAR, Ronny Deila has been unable to win even three games in a row as Celtic manager. But he already has his sights firmly fixed on a far more momentous form of treble.

Given the uncertain start to his tenure, publicly declaring his intention to collect all three domestic trophies in his first season may appear as rash as it is ambitious.

After all, it was a feat which eluded two of his most successful recent predecessors in the job, Gordon Strachan and Neil Lennon, and has historically proved to be a rare achievement.

In the 68 seasons since the introduction of the League Cup made it possible, the treble has been won just ten times – for Rangers by Bill Struth (1949), Scot Symon (1964), Jock Wallace (1976 and 1978), Walter Smith (1993), Dick Advocaat (1999) and Alex McLeish (2003), with only Jock Stein (1967 and 1969) and Martin O’Neill (2001) managing it for Celtic.

After watching his team produce some of their most effective football yet in the 3-0 win over Hearts on Wednesday night which took them into the last eight of the League Cup, Deila outlined his desire to add his name to that illustrious list.

Celtic have dropped seven points in their first six Premiership fixtures this season, leaving them five points off the top of the table ahead of tomorrow’s lunchtime visit to St Mirren.

Deila, however, has no doubts they are capable of stringing a telling run of consecutive victories together as he sets them the target of a domestic grand slam.

“We want some momentum now,” said Deila. “We want to win as many games in a row as possible. The team are capable of winning ten games in a row, or something like that, but I’m not saying we are definitely going to do it right now.

“What I will say is that we are definitely going to win the league. The goal is the treble. In the cups, everything can happen, but we have to set high demands and high goals. We will see in the end how that goes.”

Celtic managed only their fourth shutout in 14 games under Deila on Wednesday and their first in nine matches. The Norwegian recognises the significance of establishing greater solidity at the back in tandem with the high energy pressing tactics he demands in other areas of the pitch. “It was important to keep a clean sheet against Hearts,” he added. “Psychology is important in football. We hadn’t kept a clean sheet for a while, so that was important.

“What was good was the team performance defensively. The front players worked hard, together as a team. The structure of the team was good and that’s why we had a lot of counter-attacks and chances.