Former Celtic manager Ronny Deila has today been sacked after his controversial, and frankly ill-advised switch from Standard Liege to Club Brugge turned sour. The Norwegian lasted just ten months at Brugge. But he has endured a nightmare season in charge of the biggest club in Belgium.

Branded as a traitor

He was branded as a traitor by furious Standard supporters after his move to Club Brugge last summer. Now amid poor results and performances the ex-Celtic gaffer paid the price with his job.

Brugge today pointed to “disappointing results and level of play” that has seen them slip to FOURTH in the league. They are currently an incredible 17 points behind the leaders Union Saint-Gilloise.

Former Celtic player Efrain Juarez

For Club Brugge that is simply unacceptable.  And following a 2-1 defeat against STVV at the weekend, the inevitable happened earlier today. And one of Ronny’s assistants is the former Celtic player Efrain Juarez. He also leaves his post alongside fellow coach Kristof Aelbrecht.

Brugge statement 

Club Brugge released a statement confirming that Ronny Deila was no longer their manager.

It reads as follows:

Ronny Deila is no longer head coach of Club Brugge

“Deila (48) has been head coach of Blauw-Zwart since the beginning of this season. After disappointing results and level of play, it was decided to discontinue the collaboration with head coach Ronny Deila and assistants Efrain Juarez and Kristof Aelbrecht.

“In recent weeks, Club has not seen enough of Club Brugge’s DNA in the game delivered and the sporting management is convinced that better results should be possible with the current core.

“Club Brugge is looking for a new head coach with a view to next season.

“In the meantime, Club NXT head coach Nicky Hayen will take over. He will be supported in this by Michiel Jonckheere (head coach U18) and the other current staff members of Club A.”

Playing with fire

Best of luck to Ronny and to Efrain Juarez hopefully they are back in the game quickly. It has to be said that the Norwegian was playing with fire when he left Standard Liege. He was popular there and successful too yet decided to move their biggest rivals.

Now that it has not worked out for Ronny, there will inevitably be trust issues for any other club looking at that judgement call last summer. It was just crazy! Ronny won back-to-back titles with Celtic and also added a League Cup win, beating Dundee United in the 2015 cup final. He was replaced by Brendan Rodgers in May 2016 and he went on to complete an Invincible Treble in 2016/17 season.

ℹ️ Ronny Deila is niet langer hoofdcoach van Club Brugge.

— Club Brugge KV (@ClubBrugge) March 18, 2024