Ronny Deila plays down Virgil Van Dijk transfer speculation

Ronny Deila expects Virgil van Dijk to remain at Celtic, even if the club fail to qualify for the Champions League.

The 24 year-old defender has been heavily linked with a £10m move to Southampton, with some reports suggesting that a deal had already been completed.

However, Deila denied this was the case and insisted the Dutchman would remain at Celtic Park this season.  

"We don't need to sell Virgil," said the former Stromsgodset manager.

"I have said that a thousand times and I am tired of talking about him. He is an unbelievably good football player and Celtic is a big club and hopefully the scenario is us in the Champions League and Virgil van Dijk at Celtic Park in the group stages.

"Virgil has been very good this season so far and he is a vital player for us. He is still a Celtic player and hopefully will be for a long, long time."

Deila was speaking ahead of Celtic's crucial Champions League play-off clash against Malmo on Tuesday. The Hoops are 3-2 up in the tie from last week's first leg in Glasgow and Deila expects his side to see the job through in Sweden.

"It is like a final. If we get through we have reached one of our goals this season," said the Norwegian, speaking at Malmo's Swedbank Stadion.

"We know that the quality we have in our team is enough when we are at our best. We showed at Celtic Park that we are a better team than Malmo.

"Now we are away it is going to be a different game but we have confidence that if we are at our best we can win the game.

"We need to win everything in Scotland, we have to get into the Champions League. That's how it is at Celtic. We hate losing and we haven't done that for a long time.

"So yes, there is pressure on us to win but we have that every time and we know how to deal with that."

Deila is set to be without experienced right-back Mikael Lustig, who is struggling with a hamstring problem.

"We hope that Mikael can be ready but we have showed that we can do without him," said Deila.