Celtic board disrespected fans by going for cheap option Deila, says Hoops legend Frank McGarvey

And now he says that they will only have themselves to blame should Rangers, or anyone else, beat them to next season’s Premiership title.

McGarvey is pleased with the appointment of Brendan Rodgers as the man to succeed Deila, but he firmly believes that an experienced big name should have been brought in well before this summer.

Read more: Frank McGarvey tips Leigh Griffiths to top last season's tally under new Celtic boss Rodgers

While McGarvey says that Deila did the best he could, he is adamant that the board’s decision to appoint the Norwegian has set the team’s progress back several years from where it should be.

Because of that, he is now worried that Rangers could seriously challenge Celtic for the league title in their first year back in the top-flight.

“A big name like Brendan Rodgers should have been appointed years ago,” said McGarvey.

“I don’t blame Ronny Deila for the state of Celtic last season and the poor football that was being played – he was the cheap option and did as well as he could. I blame people higher up at the club.

“Celtic showed disrespect to their fans who pay a lot of money to watch the team and disrespect to the rest of Scottish football by appointing the cheapest option possible.

“What they should have been doing is chasing European football and the money that comes from that so that when Rangers came back up, they would be in a much stronger position.

“I don’t understand the mentality shown by Celtic over the last few years. This is Celtic we’re talking about, doing just enough to get by should never have even be considered.

“Make no mistake, Rangers won’t be coming up to the Premiership to play second fiddle to Celtic. They have 50,000 supporters at their home games and they are every bit as demanding as the Celtic fans.

“They might not be in a position at the minute where their squad is good enough to challenge for the league title, but the fact that Brendan Rodgers is scrambling about now trying to get players in and move players on means that Celtic are in a much weaker position than they should have been.

“I’m not saying that Rangers or anyone else but Celtic will win the league next season, but it’s far from the sure thing that it should be.

“The appointment of Rodgers is great but it has come too late for me. If Celtic don’t win the league next year the blame will lie with the board.”

Despite any misgivings he has around the timing of Rodger’s appointment, McGarvey is excited by the prospect of Celtic returning to an attacking style of play more closely associated with their traditions under the Northern Irishman.

In his opinion though, the first priority for the new Hoops boss lies in bolting the door at the other end of the park.

“Brendan Rodgers will bring excitement back to Celtic Park and attacking football,” McGarvey said. “When he was manager of Swansea and Liverpool I would turn on the telly just to watch them because they played football the right way.

“Some people are casting up that he hasn’t won any trophies, but don’t forget that if Steven Gerrard hadn’t slipped against Chelsea he would almost certainly have led Liverpool to the English Premier League title.

“He is the best manager that Celtic could have got. If it was between him and Davie Moyes for the job, I would have gone for Brendan because he plays the sort of attacking football that will excite Celtic fans.

“The first thing he has to do though is sort out the defence. When you look at successful sides at any level of the game, a settled defence is the one thing that they all have in common.

“He needs to get a settled back four or five that will play every week, rather than the situation we had last year where it was always being chopped and changed.

“Just look at the St Johnstone game at the end of the season, we’re trying to win a game and the manager brings on Efe Ambrose. It pains me when I think of a Lisbon Lion like Jim Craig getting £65 a week when I played and then think of what guys like that will be getting.

“I think Erik Sviatchenko has done quite well and seems to know what the club is about, but he needs a reliable partner and they have to be given time to strike up a partnership.

“Brendan doesn’t have time though, that’s the problem, and that’s the reason why he should have been brought in long ago.

“The Champions League qualifiers aren’t far away, and European football is so crucial to Celtic. The fans have been starved of top-level action for the last few seasons, but it won’t be easy for Brendan Rodgers to put together a defence or an entire side in time to give Celtic the best possible chance of qualifying for the group stage.

“The supporters are rightly excited by his appointment, but the board haven’t given him the best chance of being successful by waiting until now to make a serious appointment.”