The Club Brugge boss has been looking back on his two years with the Hoops

Ronny Deila claims he could go and manage Real Madrid now thanks to his stint as Celtic boss, which he admits he was completely underprepared for.

The Norwegian led the Hoops for two years and lifted two Premiership titles and a League Cup. But he was sacked in 2016, paving the way for Brendan Rodgers’ arrival in Glasgow. Deila moved to America with New York City FC afterwards and found success there by winning the MLS Cup, before a stint at Standard Liege followed a controversial switch to Belgian Pro League rivals Club Brugge, where he still manages

But Deila has been reflecting back on his Hoops career and confesses that after moving from Strømsgodset in Norway to the heady heights of Celts, he struggled to deal with the immensity of the challenge that the 48-year-old says was ‘a step too big’ at the time.

However, the Brugge boss said his experience at Celtic means he could now go and handle the enormity of managing Spanish giants Madrid if called upon. Deila explained: “Few people can imagine how enormous the pressure is at Celtic.

“It is one of the largest clubs in the world. And I came from Strømsgodset, a small club at European level, comparable to, say, Eupen here in Belgium, where there are only 7 to 8,000 supporters in the stands.

“At Celtic there were suddenly 60,000 and the club has a total of 10 million fans worldwide.

The city of Glasgow is crazy about football. You have to win there. I wasn’t ready for it. I simply couldn’t prepare for something like that.

“Mentally it was challenging, to the extent that the fun was gone at the end. I was up. Then you have no chance.

“But I would absolutely do it again. I am very proud of my progress there. I built a team full of young players who were virtually unbeatable in the years that followed.

“At the time it was tough. The step was too big. It was like going from first grade to sixth grade.

“It will never be as hard as it was then. But because I have now acquired the necessary knowledge. I now even dare to say that I could manage any team…even Real Madrid.

“Because of Celtic I feel I am up for any challenge.”