Deila slams poor Scottish pitches

Ronny Deila believes the Scottish Football Association (SFA) should consider introducing more artificial pitches and the possibility of switching the Scottish Premiership to summer after the Celtic manager slammed the state of playing surfaces in the country.

Celtic moved eight points clear atop the table courtesy of a 2-0 victory at St Mirren on Friday but post-game was dominated by Deila’s dissatisfaction with pitches Scottish Premiership players are forced to play on.

Deila, who arrived from Norwegian side Stromsgodset ahead of the 2014-15 season, says grounds in Scotland are affecting the development of the country’s youngsters.

And the Norwegian boss believes the SFA could learn a thing or two from his homeland, where a number of teams play on artificial pitches.

“Pitches in Scotland are terrible. I just have to be honest. You try to get passing into the team and the ball is bouncing all the time. It is not even close to what you get in Europe,” Deila said on Friday.

“It is much easier for the other team to break down our play instead of trying to create something themselves.

“It is much better to play on artificial pitches than play on this, if they are watering them and they are the best quality, they are totally different and are closer to European pitches.

“Nothing is better than a good grass pitch but if it is going to be like this you are better to play on artificial, like at Kilmarnock.

“If we are going to develop good young players you need to have a good surface to train on and play on, if not you get what you are, fighters. If you want skills and technique you have to play on better surfaces.

“Surfaces in Norway are much better, 60 per cent are very good artificial and the grass pitches are better as well and we play in the summer – maybe that’s the biggest change.”