Ronny Deila believes Celtic can be own biggest opponents
Saturday 18 April 2015 13:49, UK
Ronny Deila believes that Celtic can be their own biggest opponents and has called for his players to keep their mind "on the right things" as they prepare for the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final against Inverness.
The League Cup winners are eight points clear of Aberdeen at the top of the Scottish Premiership and are on the brink of clinching a fourth title in a row.
They could take another big step towards a treble with a win over Caley Thistle at Hampden Park on Sunday live on Sky Sports 2 and the Norwegian boss said time will tell if he has a squad capable of achieving such domestic dominance.
He said: "We will see but I really believe that we can do it and now it is up to us. If we are performing well, we know that we are very hard to beat.
"We have shown that for a long, long time now and again, our biggest opponent is ourselves. We need to keep our mind on the right things.
"I have felt a sense of excitement for a long time. But it is very important to focus on the next training session and next game, instead of thinking of what might be, thinking of what we have to do to make it as good as possible now."
Deila hopes that treble success will help to attract players to the club this summer and go some way to convincing those unsure of their Parkhead future to stay in Glasgow’s east end.
The former Stromsgodset boss said: "The players are happy, they enjoy being in Glasgow and at Celtic and if they see the team is going forward they want to stay, that is my experience.
"It's my job to make the staff and players feel well and have fun and looking forward to coming to work.
"It is not like that everywhere. I've had players come to me who are very unhappy and then money is nothing, in my opinion."
The day after the midweek 4-1 home win over Kilmarnock, Deila travelled south to see Celtic's development team lose on penalties to Manchester City in the quarter final of the Premier League International Cup.
Out of favour striker Stefan Scepovic, signed from Sporting Gijon for a reported fee of £2.3m in September, was given some game time and Deila, who has Anthony Stokes suspended and Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong cup-tied for the Caley game, revealed the 25-year-old Serbia international will be in his plans for Hampden.
He said: "Scepovic is in the squad for Sunday. He needed a game instead of sitting on the bench on Wednesday.
"His contribution is going up and down. There is competition; it's tough to switch around when you have other strikers doing well.
"But he has some qualities that the others don't have and he's trying to improve."
