Ronny Deila fearful of Dundee despite losing Armstrong and Mackay-Steven

RONNY DEILA believes Dundee United are still a formidable force, even without Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven.

John GuidettiRoss Turpie

Ronny Deila says John Guidetti will find his home at Celtic

And the Celtic boss knows the Terrors will be fired up to dump his team out of the Scottish Cup today to end his dreams of a Treble in his debut season.

Deila signed the duo at the end of January, but both are ineligible at Tannadice, having played in the last round for United.

But he points out that Mackay- Steven wasn’t playing when United beat Celtic 2-1 in December.

He said: “Motivation won’t be a problem for them – or for us. We will be ready for the game.

“They’ll be a little bit different without Gary and Stuart but they have similar players coming through. They are quick and good on the counter-attack.

“It’s always a team that can hurt you. I felt we were playing well the last time and they beat us – that was without Gary too. They should also be proud of what they’ve done, but I understand there is some frustration that they want to build a team.

“But when you know how to educate and form good players, new ones will come up in time.

“That’s something they have there because it’s not the first time they have sold.

“When I was at Stromsgodset, I lost the best player, or two, every year, but every year we got better than the year before.”

Deila will suffer a huge headache come the end of the season as Jason Denayer will return to Manchester City, Virgil van Dijk is likely to be sold and John Guidetti has not committed to a deal.

Fringe players Mubarak Wakaso and Alexsandar Tonev will also return to parent clubs Rubin Kazan and Aston Villa.

Deila is eager to keep Guidetti, in particular, even if the striker cannot command a starting place.

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And the boss believes there’s a willingness on the Swede’s part to pledge his future to Celtic, even if he was allegedly misquoted in a Dutch newspaper discussing joining former club Feyenoord.

Deila said: “John and Jason are the two regulars we know are not here next season as things stand.

“There’s Wakaso and Tonev too, but they haven’t played as much. We’ll see what happens with them.

“There was talk in the Dutch press about John going back to Feyenoord this week. I spoke to him and he was very upset. When I heard what he was meant to have said, I thought, ‘That’s not a good message to put out’.

“But he said that’s not what he said. John has a good relationship with the club and said he’d like to go back there and play one day. He said, ‘You never know what will happen’.

“That was reported as John saying he wanted to go there now.

“I spoke to John and he told me he’s very happy to stay at Celtic. He wants to win everything.

“What John said was totally misunderstood and I wasn’t happy with that. I know John is enjoying being at Celtic. I still believe it’s possible he’ll be here next season.

“John can be better, and he has been better, but it’s difficult to get consistency when you’re always moving club.

“John needs a home and that home should be Celtic.”

Deila also stated the relationship with Manchester City that produced the loan deals for Guidetti and Denayer is likely to continue, possibly solving his recruitment problem.

He said: “City and Celtic have a good relationship. We want to help each other and that is positive.

“Look at the player Jason is now. Nobody knew about him before he came here. John has also shown his value.

“We get good players and Man City get a place for their players to develop. It’s a relationship I want to continue.

“That’s important. It’s not just about getting players, we can also get access to what the best in the world are doing and that will be good for development.”

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