Deila: Forster vital to Celtic

23 July 2014 05:17

Ronny Deila stressed his desire to keep Fraser Forster at Celtic Park after the Hoops cruised through to the Champions League third qualifying round with a 4-0 win over KR Reykjavik at the BT Murrayfield stadium in Edinburgh.

Celtic had reportedly rejected a bid from Southampton for the England international keeper, who was mostly a spectator as doubles from defender Virgil van Dijk and striker Teemu Pukki ensured the Scottish champions would be facing either St Patrick's Athletic or Legia Warsaw in the next round after sealing a 5-0 aggregate triumph.

After the match Hoops boss Deila revealed he had not felt the need to speak to his keeper, saying: "We want to keep Fraser. Of course we want to qualify for the Champions League so we want to keep him.

"He hasn't (indicated a desire to leave). He has done a good job since he has come to Celtic but Celtic have also been fantastic for him and I hope that will continue because we need our best players and he is a fantastic keeper.

"Something will happen in the end but if it happens now or in the winter or next summer, I don't know, we will see. But we have to keep on going.

"Things are happening around my players all the time but Fraser is an unbelievable professional and I know that he really wants to play in the Champions League."

Deila was happy for the most part with his side's attitude against a limited Icelandic side and laughed when it was mentioned that the Celtic fans had booed when Pukki was replaced by Liam Henderson immediately after scoring his second in the 71st minute.

The Norwegian said: "We wanted to see Kris Commons in the number nine role - but I will keep that in my mind for the next time, if they start booing.

"Teemu was good. He had one or two chances before he scored.

"We started very well. The first 30 minutes was about killing the game and that's what we wanted to do with good tempo on the ball.

"We worked a lot on set play which will be important when we go further so two goals today was a bonus.

"We wanted to do the same things in the second-half but I didn't think we managed that so that is what we have to work on.

"We have 90 minutes to try to really destroy the opponent, when you get three goals, you want to go for more."

Source: PA