RONNY Deila last night launched an unprecedented attack on his critics and insisted he will remain in charge of Celtic if the Scottish champions fail to make it through to the knockout stages of the Europa League.

Deila hit out following the suggestion by Alex McLeish, the former Rangers manager, that winning the domestic Treble in the 2015/16 campaign may not be enough for him to secure his job.

The 40-year-old even rounded on Pat Bonner, the Celtic legend who this week predicted he will have to win a league and cup double and remain in Europe after Christmas to avoid the sack, in an astonishing tirade.

The Norwegian, whose side performed disappointingly during a heavy 3-1 defeat away to Molde last week, insisted he retained the complete backing of major shareholder Dermot Desmond and chief executive Peter Lawwell.

It has been suggested that Desmond and Lawwell will dispense with the services of their manager - who has failed to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League since being appointed last year - if Celtic are unable to progress from Group A.

But Deila stated: “That’s not true. I know they won’t do that. They are big leaders, big businessmen. They are looking at the process. They see what is going on.

“Has he (McLeish) had Dermot Desmond and Peter Lawwell as leaders? In the last 10 to 15 years, there have been ups and downs here at Celtic as well. Almost every manager they stick with. Most managers have been here for a long while, four or five years.

“They give people time. That’s because they are clever. They understand that you need time to develop something and to create something. There’s no magic here. It’s hard work, knowledge and developing players in the whole club.

“They see what’s inside. They see that things are turning around. It’s not like ‘here you have the culture before, then we change around and after six months it’s the Ronny culture so you have to be much better’. This takes years. But you have to keep the results going as well.”

Asked if he was guaranteed to be given more time to bring European success to Parkhead, he said: “I know this. They are following everything. I know that they support me and my staff in what we are doing.

“Why bring me in here then? They wanted to go in a different direction. That’s why they brought me in. I feel absolutely trusted by the players, by the staff, by the board, by everybody.

“This club is so united. It’s fantastic. I really, really enjoy it every day. But people outside is reading and seeing people like these guys coming up with comments – even though the results of the club have been unbelievable for many, many years.

“You have people talking in the media all the time, but I know what is going on at Celtic. I know how the people and players are thinking. I know how it is to live at Celtic with everyone on the outside wanting to drag us down.”

Meanwhile, Deila revealed that Scott Brown will miss the Ladbrokes Premiership game against Aberdeen at Celtic Park this afternoon as a result of the knee injury he sustained in the warm-up before the League Cup quarter-final with Hearts at Tynecastle on Wednesday evening.

He admitted that his influential captain and central midfielder could also be ruled out of the crucial Europa League rematch with Molde at Parkhead on Thursday night.

“It is nothing major we think, but it is an injury which is not so common so we need to get more information about it,” said Deila. “It can be a short-term injury or it can be a little bit longer, but we need to know a little bit more about it. But he is out for tomorrow. Probably for Thursday as well, but we don’t know.”