Celtic v Aberdeen: Criticism part of managing a big club - Calderwood
Last updated on .From the section Football
Former Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood says Ronny Deila has to learn to deal with the criticism that comes with being Celtic boss.
Deila hit out at his critics, claiming other clubs in Scotland are jealous of the champions and want his team to lose.
However, Calderwood said: "That's the way football is in Scotland."
He told BBC Scotland: "Ronny's at one of the biggest clubs in the world and that's life, I'm afraid."
Deila had recently expressed a sense of injustice about the lack of praise for success at Celtic, while failures, he felt, are magnified, particularly compared to other clubs.
The Norwegian said Rangers losing in the League Cup to St Johnstone was not criticised as much as Celtic defeats, with his side losing out in the Champions League qualifiers to Malmo and sitting bottom of their Europa League group.
Calderwood said: "You would think Rangers will probably come back next season and they'll be getting stick from the beginning also if they're not in second or third place. Hearts, and Hibs if they get back, will be the same. They're all big clubs.
"Ajax got beat by Feyenoord, their big rivals, and they will get absolutely slaughtered by the papers in Amsterdam. Frank de Boer will be getting it. You look at Feyenoord, I don't think they've won the league in 15 years, they'll get it also.
"Every big club, certainly the biggest three clubs in the competition, will get stick."
Deila's Celtic host Aberdeen on Saturday, with the visitors yet to take three points from Glasgow since Calderwood led them to a 3-2 win in October 2004.
Since then they have posted two Scottish Cup victories; a 1-0 win under Calderwood in 2008 and last year's 2-1 success under current manager Derek McInnes.
Calderwood says the latter win, and this season's 2-1 victory at Pittodrie, should be all the motivation the visitors need at Celtic Park.
"They've got the quality to do it," he said. "They did do it at Pittodrie although people tell me Celtic were very unlucky that day. That's football.
"It's a wonderful stadium to go and play in, Aberdeen have got nothing to lose, the pressure's on Celtic. They've got players that can hurt them, they've got three or four good strikers.
"They're so strong, they've got a very strong squad. Aberdeen are by far in my eyes the second best team in Scotland.
"They did it on the cup last year so they know they can do it. It's just a confidence thing."
A defeat for Aberdeen would see them fall seven points behind Celtic and Calderwood says if the Dons have any ambitions of winning the title they must take something from the game.
He added: "I think Derek was getting angry looking at the papers and reading that if they lose that's the league finished. Let's be honest that could be true, you can't see Celtic dropping too many points in the league."
