RONNY DEILA insists he meant no disrespect to Neil Lennon when he overhauled the approach to fitness at Celtic.

The Norwegian boss has banned snacks and fizzy drinks at the club's Lennoxtown training HQ and makes the team eat together to control their diet and increase performance levels.

News of the new manager's changes has irked his predecessor Lennon, who took the moves as a criticism of the condition the Hoops players were in under his regime.

But Deila has stressed his healthy eating drive is not a negative reflection on the "fantastic" job Lennon did at Celtic.

He said: "I inherited a champion team so I have never said anything to make that performance look bad.

"What I meant is that we have brought in some new players and we also have others who have been out injured and had operations and are now coming back again.

"There is always room for improvement. As Neil says, there are different ways to look at things.

"For me, we still have a job to do to get the players fitter. That has nothing to do with what has gone on here before because that was great.

"Neil did fantastically well and I've always been respectful about that.

"I'm a big fan of what he did here before I came to this club. But I want us to play with even more togetherness and be even better physically.

"Some of our players have just arrived at Celtic from other countries and some have been injured for a while.

"So they need to adapt and get fit but that's been taking more time than I would have wanted."