A NEW defender in the ranks in the shape of Danish internationalist Erik Sviatchenko from FC Midtjylland who signed a four-and-a-half year deal last night, but it is a familiar striker who is basking in the limelight.

Celtic head to Hamilton tomorrow night for their re-arranged fixture against Accies with Leigh Griffiths in the kind of form that suggests his season target of 30 goals is well within touching distance.

Yet, you do not have to go too far back to recall a time when the 24-year-old was kicking his heels, either on the bench or sitting in the stand.

The striker showed a maturity with his willingness to take on board the requests that were made of him by the Celtic management team and, as reluctant as they might have been at times to accept that he was the best striker at the club, Griffiths’ talking on the pitch made him impossible to ignore.

As Anthony Stokes heads in the opposite direction along the M8 to Leith this week to embark on a loan move at Hibs that could resurrect his career, Scott Allan could be forgiven for wondering whether he made the right move at all in switching the green of Hibernian for the Hoops this summer.

And Deila has held up the example of Griffiths as what can be achieved if the attitude is right.

“Yes, Leigh is an example for everyone,” said Deila. “You have to always want to improve things.

“There is a reason why someone else is in front of you.

“ It is about improving, about being the best you can be and then you have to take your chance when you get it.

“It is tough at Celtic. There is so much competition. He has come from a team where he played every week but here there are other players who can also play in that position.

“It is not easy. But there will be chances. It is a long season but you have to be prepared to do the best for your career and for your football.

“You have to work hard, every day. You have to go into training and give your best every time you walk on to the pitch.

“It is about work, work, work and then you will see the kind of reward that Leigh is seeing now.

“The players who become something in their careers, they want to change and work hard.

“We talked a lot to Leigh and he understood what a big opportunity he had in his life to go and play as a striker for Celtic.

“He came back and made the changes and said he wanted to be a striker for Celtic. This is a big, big club and he had to fight for his position in the club and for his career. He did many good things to improve himself and you can see what type of player he is today.

“He is the example of players who listen, who are humble and who want to learn.”

Meanwhile, Deila has insisted that no matter when Celtic might tie up the league this season that he will not allow his players to take their foot off the pedal.

It was the latter part of last season when Celtic played their best football under Deila.

And as they seek to stretch their lead at the top of the table tomorrow night, the Norwegian wants to maintain a certain standard as the Hoops push for a domestic clean sweep.

This time last term was also when Aberdeen were at their most consistent and a similar run would enable the Dons to at least ask some questions of Deila’s men.

“If you are going to win the league then you need to produce performances and results,” said Deila.

“The only thing we can do is win our games and put pressure on Aberdeen now.

“I have no target for winning the league but I do want to win it is as early as possible.

“But it is not about what is going on in my head – we have to win our games and then we will see where we are.

“But even if we are 15 points ahead, we still need to perform and we still need to win games in a certain way at Celtic.

“I think it will be a long time before this league is finished.

“Even if we have a strong lead, we also have the Scottish Cup and League Cup hopefully to think about, and we want to stay sharp and play in a good way.

“We will always look forward because we know how important the Champions League qualifying games are, but it is also about the here and now and winning games and making good performances. It is important we keep winning.”

Kieran Tierney took a hefty knock against Dundee United on Friday night which could mean a return to action for Emilio Izaguirre.

“Emilio is a good player and he has been a great player for Celtic,” said Deila.

“KT has come in and played extraordinarily well but we have to manage him and make sure that he is getting the right amount of game time.

“But these are the kind of headaches that we managers like.”