Ronny Deila is confident that he has the backing of Celtic majority shareholder Dermot Desmond – for now.

The Irish businessman was in Malmo this week as Celtic flopped out of the Champions League at the play-off stages.

Deila has confirmed that he has since spoken with Desmond and while that particular conversation will remain private, the Celtic manager believes that he has the trust of the board as he seeks to take the Parkhead side forward.

However, Deila did hint that he had to hold his hands up after his side fell at the final hurdle this summer in their quest for the Champions League football.

“I speak with him [Desmond] all the time,” said Deila. “That’s what I do. I don’t want to go into detail what our conversation was about but what I can say is he’s a very intelligent man who knows how to run businesses and football clubs.

“Honestly is the most important thing in whatever you are doing. No one goes through life without doing good jobs and bad jobs. But the best players and people are learning all the time and get on. This club is in progress. That’s the only thing I am sure of.”

And Deila has also maintained that he will get Celtic into the Champions League, if he is given time.

"I don't think a very smart person is judging only on results," he explained. "People who succeed in life judge progress in many ways.

"This club is one of the best-driven clubs in the world. We're developing young players, we're taking in players and developing them and selling them for a lot of money and we win so many titles in Scotland.

"If you want to be negative, you can have it in that way (judged on Champions League), but for me it's much more than one thing.

"I think we're going to be in the Champions League when I'm the manager. Now, I think, we are closer. Next year, hopefully we get a new chance."

Meanwhile, Virgil van Dijk did not train yesterday afternoon and it is inevitable that the player will leave the club over the next few days.

“It’s the same situation,” said Deila. “It will be good for him and for us that this finishes on September 1 so we can move on. He has a contract here and we want to keep him. We don’t need to sell him.

“I know there is interest from different clubs so that’s positive. I think it’s normal that he’s thinking about what his options are but he’s happy here. He knows he has a fantastic club but he is also seeing if these other options could take his career to another level.”

And the Celtic manager refused to confirm reports linking him with Inverness Caledonian Thistle youngster Ryan Christie.

“There are different prospects we are looking at now,” he said. “There will be a lot of rumours in the next few days. A lot of things going on. On September 1, then we can sit down and see where we are.”