THE press conference took place in three languages, was a tad noisy and at times not the easiest to follow but there was one thing you could most definitely take from the half hour Vitor Pereira held court inside Celtic Park.

That the Fenerbahce coach is not head over heels in love with Robin van Persie.

Glasgow Times:

A scowl crawled across the face of Pereira when the Scottish media questioned him about a player who, according to the hacks who had made the journey to Glasgow from Istanbul, is being weighed in to the tune of £1.3million a month.

Now something may have been lost in the translation from English to Turkish to Portuguese before heading back the way again. However, the Portuguese was given a great opportunity to say that Van Persie was a fantastic player and that talk of such rifts and fall-outs was merely mischief making.

Instead, it became clear that the Dutchman and his boss are going through a difficult period. Pereira managed to say nothing and everything at the same time.

Asked directly about his supposed star striker, Pereira said: “I have a great relationship with my team and players. Sometimes the tension is high. Our relationship is about the people who want to get better, and this team want to get better and improve. Van Persie is part of this team and we all want to improve our level and get better,

“Our relationship is based on trust with each other and the confidence we have. We have our objectives and are focussed on that. Sometimes these high tensions happen. But in football you can solve the situation perfectly.

“Many times in football you need tension to win the game, you need these moments. If everything goes in peace, if it is calm all the time, then you cannot win games. These kind of things are normal, they are normal for us. The people who work for the club, when it happens, we live and forget it. This passes really fast for us.

“I understand their point of view, you like to sell newspapers and make news about it, but these kind of things are small things for us and we solve it really fast. It happens fast but we solve it fast. What we think now is to win the game and play good football.”

We had another go. The Fenerbahce coach was asked whether Van who clearly isn’t the man any more would start at Celtic Park in what is a hugely important Europa League match for both sides.

“I am sorry, I have answered about Van Persie. Nani is here so ask him a question,” said Pereira. “I have 18 players in Scotland, 25 in total, and we play as a team, speak as a team, and I have to respect all my players because everyone has the same importance.”

Pereira is a cool customer but he is under some pressure despite not being long in the job. Lose here and the rumours in Turkey point to an early sacking.

“Pressure is part of our professional life,” he said. “I always feel pressure. It is why I choose football. I live with pressure and I like living it. The (recent) Molde and Besiktas games were very different. Until we conceded the second goal against Molde we were the better team, but after that we lost our focus and tactical balance – that is why we lost.

“Now we have a new game. We start at 0-0. In our last game, against Bestikas, we lost but were the superior side in terms of creating opportunities to score and the quality of our game, but we didn’t manage to get the result. However, we still have our confidence and we still believe in ourselves. We have not lost our quality.

“We know what we have to do. I am a passionate guy and it’s not only me but the players like this kind of pressure. I feel happy to have opportunity to play a game like this against Celtic.

“We are going to play a Europa League game and it’s an important game. In terms of the technical side, there will be high quality. The stadium is going to be full, the calibre high, the pitch looks as it is good so if there will be good football played on it. Both teams could produce a spectacular game.”

Nani did get a chance to speak and was asked about his previous outing in the east end of Glasgow, a 1-1 draw in 2008 during his days with Manchester United. The winger was not great that night, he did not appear after half-time having been bullied out the game. He expects more of the same.

“Celtic used to be a very strong team, similar to English players, “ he said. “The atmosphere is similar. I remember in my first game here that it was a little hard. The manager kept shouting at me to be strong because they were tackling a lot.

“We have to have tackles. That is part of the game. We need to be strong on the pitch. That’s what makes fans come to the games.

“What I can tell you is that it is a team who likes to attack at home. Celtic have a strong mentality from the first to last minute. It is like in England. I think we have to be prepared to play 90 minutes and some more. We need to be at the same level for that time. If we can be at our best then we can have a good game.”