SOCIAL PEDAGOGY. It is a subject unlikely to be uppermost in the minds of Celtic supporters as their manager Ronny Deila endeavours to restore order to a turbulent season by overtaking Aberdeen in the Ladbrokes Premiership and achieving some kind of success further afield in the Europa League.

It will, however, play an important part in galvanising a collection of players splitting opinion on whether or not they really are making progress under the 40-year-old Norwegian in the second season of his very personal project at Parkhead.

Deila, who considered becoming a teacher at the end of his playing career, studied the discipline at university in his homeland and has applied much of the theory to the challenges that being a football manager is prone to throw up.

Social pedagogy, in a nutshell, concerns holistic education and social care. It focuses, in part, on developing the human being, building trust and self-confidence, making people focus on their strengths and building positive relationships within a group.

It is easy to see why Deila has placed many of the lessons learned from the classroom at the heart of his footballing philosophy to the degree that he had his former lecturer, Per Jacob Evjen, on the staff at Stromsgodset during the six-year spell as head coach in which he turned the club from relegation battlers to league champions for the first time in 43 years.

Deila will meet again with his mentor in Molde next week as Celtic face the unlikely leaders of Group A of the Europa League in what is shaping up to be a very important fixture.

Evjen, now 74 years of age and planning the final lecture of his career on December 1, will travel from his home in the southern town of Larvik to watch the game. As always, he will relish the opportunity to catch up with his protégé and chew the fat.

He has travelled to Glasgow on a couple of occasions to visit Deila, but he admits it was during long conversations within the confines of his own home many years ago that his former pupil started to form his own view of how a football club could be successfully restructured.

Deila would be made to look within his own self to answer searching questions on how an individual can fulfil his potential. He would be asked to consider the battle between the conscious mind and the unconscious in effecting positive change.

The regular car journeys back from Larvik to Drammen, where was based, gave him the space to make sense of what he had been discussing, allow Evjen’s challenges and demands to crystallise into an evolving philosophy.

The next week’s trips to Motherwell and his homeland will provide alternative food for thought, but they could still have quite a say on the future trajectory of his career.

“When we first met, Ronny was on my course in counselling and coaching,” recalled Evjen. “He was doing work based on what social pedagogy could do for a football trainer and was a very clever student.

“We have had a lot of very, very good conversations with each other through the years.

“I have not told him anything. What I have done, though, is ask him questions to make him reflect on his values and be more conscious of them.

“I live around 100 kilometres from Drammen, where he was based with Stromsgodset. The most common contact we had was when he came here to my home and we would have a couple of hours of reflection together.

“I would always challenge him with some questions. It was when he went back in the car from Larvik to Drammen, which is maybe a one and a quarter-hour journey, that he took the time to reflect on everything that we had been talking about.

“He used that time to develop his own thoughts and strategies.

“It is interesting that he took lessons from a non-footballing environment and translate them to football, but I think it is the main reason for his success.

“For him, the most important thing is the relations that exist between people. He is very, very good at developing positive, constructive relationships.

“The main thinking is that football is 50 per cent football and 50 per cent human understanding. He has combined these things very well.”

Folkeuniversitetet, which facilitated Deila’s studies, still has a testimonial from the Celtic manager on its official website.

“At times, it can be lonely being a leader,” he is quoted as saying. “Therefore, it is important for me to have a good sparring partner who can guide me along the way. I have Per Jacob Evjen.”

It is a two-way street, though. Evjen has also asked Deila to star as a guest lecturer with his new breed of students.

“I know there is an age difference between us, but I think Ronny looks at me as a very good friend now and I certainly feel that way about him,” he said. “I am looking forward to seeing him in Molde.

“The strongest thing inside Ronny is to be humble. You have to think all the time that you have to learn things.

“When we speak on the phone, we always have the agreement that we can be better today than we were yesterday, but that we are not as good as we are going to be tomorrow.

“I have also used him as a lecturer on my courses.

“Students were initially surprised, particularly some of the women, when a football coach came in to talk to them. However, whether they were teachers or social workers, they became enthusiastic about the sport after listening to him.

“They could see that, basically, the same things applied to their lines of work and he was popular.

“What I teach is counselling and coaching. It is about getting the potential out of other people by making them take responsibility, believe in themselves and be conscious of who they are, what their strong points are.

“As I see it, it is very relevant to football.

“The way I speak in my lectures is that you should always look at the good things people possess.

“This, of course, has to be adapted to football. It has to be balanced with demands and instructions.

“Ronny has had to transform his thinking to the practical activities on the field.”

It was not always plain sailing at Stromsgodset, but the club’s sporting director Jostein Flo remained in solid support of Deila despite early difficulties and Evjen hopes Celtic will show similar faith.

“They were patient with him at Stromsgodset as he built his system and I think that was the main reason for his success,” said Evjen.

“Jostein Flo and other people gave him the possibility to develop the club. When he started, he wanted Stromsgodset to be the best soccer club in Norway in terms of developing good football players and good human beings.

“I think everyone worked with him towards creating that.

“I believe Ronny has good support at Celtic. He will, for sure, be able to create a good team at Celtic, but he needs the right backing. You do not create a top team in a matter of weeks or months.

“It takes two, three, four years. I have never doubted that Ronny will achieve that in the long run.”