Ronny Deila: "Celtic title should be respected"

Departing boss Ronny Deila insists Celtic's fifth successive Premiership title win should be given appropriate respect.

The Hoops confirmed their status of Scottish champions with a 3-2 win over second-placed Aberdeen at Parkhead after a fine Patrick Roberts double and a Mikael Lustig goal gave the home side a commanding lead before goals from former Celtic man Niall McGinn and defender Andrew Considine reduced the deficit. Celtic have lost only three league games this season - two to the Dons – and with two fixtures remaining have moved on to 83 points.

The Norwegian leaves at the end of the season with his second title win after claiming a lack of improvement over the last six months, and he has come in for criticism for his team's record in the cup competitions.

However, Deila claimed the championship should be valued like any of the other recent title wins.

He said “Why not? Of course it should be. It is a title.

“You have to fight against the teams in the league and you can't say this is not more worthy than the others.

“It is very disrespectful thing to say about the other teams as well.

“You see in other leagues that small teams win but now we have five in a row and should be every proud of it and hopefully it will be more next season.

“We were consistent in the results, we haven't lost in the league since February - even though we have felt it was going to be relegation this year.

“The demands are high and it is important to enjoy it and the fans showed that today, they were happy to get that title.

“It was good to beat Aberdeen and show we are the best team in the country.

“We controlled the game, played very well in the first 60 minutes then got a little bit edgy in the end, but got over the line.”

Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes praised Celtic's league form, saying:

“Today is about Celtic. They have done well and deserve credit.

“For all the criticism that has come the manager's way and the players' way it hasn't been through their league form.

“Their points tally will be up there with any championship-winning team. They have only lost three games.

“Ultimately we beat them twice and we probably needed someone else to lay a glove on them as well to get closer to them, but they deserve credit today.”

McInnes is looking for his side to finish the campaign on a high and wants the Pittodrie board to help to mount another challenge next season.

He said: “Last season we got 75 points - a Premiership record for a club outside the Old Firm.

“We all agreed it was a tough challenge but I think we'll beat it. We need four points to equal it and six points to beat it. We'll be the first team outside the Old Firm to get 70-plus points two seasons in a row.

“We are disappointed because we got ourselves in a good position. Hopefully if we can get in a similar position next season we can learn from this and put ourselves in a better position to challenge right to the end.

“From our perspective it is about the improvement of my team going forward, the improvement of the players I have got in my squad at the moment and the improvement we will get from players out with.

“I think we have to make sure we are smart with our work in the summer and identify key players and make sure we are ready so if we get into a stage similar to where we were this season, and get ourselves jostling for position, then we are more capable of fulfilling that and going the full way.”