HOOPS boss Ronny Deila believes that winger James Forrest could be the man to dismantle Fenerbahce this Thursday night at Celtic Park.

The Turkish side head to Glasgow setting the pace in their own league but keen to atone for their defeat to Malmo on the opening night of this season’s Europa League campaign.

While Deila is anticipating a backlash from that result on Thursday evening, he is also insistent that Celtic are capable of getting a result that would maintain the solid start they have made to Group A.

And he will look to Forrest for some creative inspiration as the Hoops seek to find a way past Robin Van Persie and Nani.

Deila essentially closed Forrest down for a year when he arrived in Glasgow as he sought to find a way past the recurring injury problems suffered by the Scotland internationalist.

And with the player enjoying the most consistent start to a campaign since he has been in this first-team, it would appear that the call to rest him has been a successful one.

“I am so happy for him,” said Deila. “I have talked a lot about him since I came here and I feel that there has been more talk than there has been performances from him because of his injuries.

“But now I think you can see what is in him – he is fitter and stronger and getting better all the time. This is just the start of it for him.

“He is training with us consistently and he playing games and that is exciting. He has so much talent. The more he plays then the more we will see what he is capable of but I am very happy with the way he has started the season.

“His influence on the team is growing all the time and he can be a big player for us in this Europa League campaign. His belief and his confidence is getting higher all the time and that is so important. He can be a big player for us, not just on Thursday night but throughout the whole season.”

There are many similarities between Celtic and this week’s Turkish opponents, not least that both teams fancy themselves as carrying a Champions League pedigree.

Fenerbahce are a team who live with intense pressure and scrutiny in their homeland and with a squad of players assembled from some of the strongest leagues in Europe they will be a decent force to be reckoned with.

Yet, while their assembled squad can boast the likes of Nani and Robin van Persie, there have also been rumours that all is not well behind the scenes with the 32-year-old Dutch internationalist believes to be the cause of some dressing room unrest.

It was club president Aziz Yildirum who was behind the striker’s move from Old Trafford and given that Van Persie recently publicly undermined coach Vitor Pereira in a recent match as he shooed him away, it would appear that all is not well off the pitch.

It is something Deila may well empathise with given his revelation last week that there has been confrontation between him and every player in his squad over his own methods at times.

Yet, for all that the tension in the Fenerbahce dressing room may be a source of some unrest, Deila still expects them to do some of their talking on the pitch.

“They have to take back the three points they lost to Molde so for them it is going to be a very important game,” he said. “But it is just as important for us. If we are going to get through then we need to take points from our home games – that is always the way for Celtic in Europe.

“We respect them because we know that they are a good team. But we have also shown that we can play well at that level.

“That first-half against Malmo was excellent and although I was irritated at the amount of chances we created and did not take against Hearts on Saturday, I felt that there was a lot about the performance that was good. We just need to keep working on the things that we are doing.

“We cannot stand still. We want to get better all the time and the way to do that is to play at the highest level you can. The game against Fenerbahce gives us another chance to see that we are progressing in the right way.”

Thursday will be Deila’s 22nd European game since he arrived at Celtic last July. And he believes that while those games have aided the experience of the Hoops players, he too has been able to evolve as a coach since taking charge of them.

“Of course I have got better as a coach because you learn so much from these games. I like to think of myself as always being open to ideas and different challenges and I have learned so much from games in the Europa League the qualifiers for the Champions League.

“But now we feel that we have to put that experience to good use and kick on. It is a big opportunity for us and we want to take it.

“We have started well with a solid point in Amsterdam and the task for us is now is to see what we can add to that.”