Celtic manager Ronny Deila has hit out at the Scottish press for mounting pressure and speculation over his job with the Glasgow side.
Following Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Motherwell, adding to the poor European campaign, further pressure has been piled on Deila with rumours abound online that he was set to be shown the door this week.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Deila said: “I follow football all the time and I have seen this before. You have to have a realistic picture of the whole thing and you can’t get carried away because sometimes you write the right things, but it’s very rare.
“There are always ups, very high and very low, it’s never something in between. But if you see the overall situation when you are leading the league, into everything [League Cup and Scottish Cup] then I cannot understand everything is so unbelievably bad.
“It’s about getting clicks on the internet and it’s about selling newspapers, because it is unbelievable.”
He added: “There are hundreds of media and everybody needs a story and everybody gets caught into this and it affects everything.
“It affects the players, it affects the club and we need to stay calm inside. That is the most important thing. We need to be together and that’s what I feel. I feel united with the players and with the staff and the people in the club.
“Yes we have challenges that we need to do better but when we stay united and are going forward then we can do it.”
Celtic are being pushed hard this season by Aberdeen, who are just a point behind the Scottish champions, albeit with Deila’s side also having a game in hand – but the Norwegian believes that Derek McInnes’ side will be in the fight all the way to the final stages of the campaign.
He continued: “Aberdeen are a very good football team. They have a consistency and have been together for a while with the same squad. They are a good opponent and they are going to push us until the last minute.
“We have not played well in the last two games, but every team goes through periods like this. You have to see the whole picture. We hadn’t lost in the league since September, now we have to get back on track and we have been very good at bouncing back from a bad result in the past.”
