The route this year to the Group Stages of the Champions League for Celtic was always going to be a Marathon.
They stumbled at the penultimate hurdle and the reasons are not a mystery.
The sight of Brendan Rodgers shaking his head as he watched a misplaced pass from Jozo Šimunović rather summed up the night.
Failure to provide the manager with the resources he asked for led to defeat in Athens.
Heated Driveway Disasters had been in remission at Parkhead for two years.
However, failure to effect major personnel changes in the summer of 2016 came back to bite Celtic.
The decision is now with Dermot Desmond.
He has had a CEO in place since 2003.
Most of his top people are in post for around seven years.
There is a good reason for that and it is rather akin to a manager rotating the squad and building from a position of strength.
Dermot Desmond now has to do a cost-benefit analysis of who would be easier to replace.
He may have to make a choice between a competent bean-counting CEO or the best Celtic manager since Jock Stein.
For me, that is a no-brainer.
My information is that Rodgers did not ask for anything in the summer that could have been characterised as busting the budget.
However, he wanted players in place for the pre-season and he didn’t get that.
It is worth re-stating that failure to get Fabian Schär and the John McGinn saga was nothing to do with the manager.
Brendan’s frustrations boiled over when the latter situation came to pass.
I’m told that his only misdemeanour in the eyes of Desmond was to make his feelings known in a presser.
The Irish billionaire knows where the problem resides.
It does seem like a very long time since the open-topped bus arrived up the Celtic Way.
I fear that things at Parkhead could unravel rather quickly if Desmond does not act decisively.
The financial hit from last night will be significant.
Budgets will be cut and players may have to be sold.
Mr Desmond knows what he has to do.
“Failure to provide the Manager with the resources he asked for led to defeat in Athens”.
One more goal and we were through, but had to be 2 less goals for the same. Not disputing a better defensive showing would have helped, but the amount of shots we had on goal (and of) and only scored twice both legs was as much to blame (and who could foresee that of our 3 attackers, all would be injured and some only coming back from injury at the same time).
Half glass full or half empty – still the same glass, but different ways to look at it.
PS Love the Jags (Mum & Dad from Maryhill), but a nice wee humping on Saturday would be a good start to freshen up the staleness at present
Lots of valid and well explained points in the replies here….
But one not mentioned so far … AND I genuinely feel is the REAL reason for our struggle in the ‘so called’ Champions league …
… is the deliberate and gradual engineering of its structure to ultimately exclude clubs like Celtic without ANY possibility of participation.
4 Spanish clubs
4 German clubs
4 English clubs
4 Italian clubs
3 French clubs
2 Russian clubs
1 Portuguese club
1 Ukrainian club
1 czec repeblic club
1 Turkish club
1 Belgian club
26 clubs ALL GET AUTOMATIC QUALIFICATION…
26 clubs from only only 11 nations
ELEVEN !!!!
Everyone else 40+ clubs (including genuine champions ) has to endure a punishing qualification process for just 6 places!
And uefa think they are making it a more exciting competition ..
(Please don’t mention coefficients. It is meaningless and the perfect way for uefa to justify their tactics via statistics rather than raw facts)
I’d argue a definite NO . Exclusive. YES. Exciting ? NO
Simple fact is – That 15 clubs get to qualify without having won their country’s top league!!!
While everyone else including other national champions like Celtic have to slug it out over 8 (EIGHT) 90 minute matches to earn a place alongside the 4th best team in Italy.
15 free rides and countless millions for coming 2nd , 3rd or even 4th.. and in the case of Spain and England in particular this comes on top of the already ridiculous wealth gained from coming 2nd, 3rd or 4th in their domestic league.
The likes of Celtic – former winners of the ‘Real Champions Cup’ and domestic champions seven times in a row Having to navigate this route is downright insulting if not criminal. Yes you could argue that if we were good enough then we’d get there.. but I’d argue that any if Liverpool , Tottenham, Valencia could equally slip up with that sort of schedule , never mind the injury and fatigue toll on the team from having to play a knockout league to get into another league right at the start of the domestic season.
Of course Liverpool, Valencia and Tottenham are saved the fatigue and potential slip ups by getting the free ticket for coming 2nd, 3rd or 4th in their league. Because they come from a league where they already have untold wealth from tv deals from coming 2nd, 3rd or 4th in that league.
In an era where the team that gets promoted to the EPL gets enough money to buy Celtic’s entire squad and still have change … well.. says it all. We’ve reached a critical point and unfortunately there’s no return.
In fact the current situation can and will only make the financial gulfs greater and greater , and the possibility of genuine ‘champions’ qualifying from the less glamorous nations closer to impossible.
You do have to wonder if leagues like the epl will stagnate a bit. Yes the top teams DO want to win their league – but is there much to play for once the hallowed 3rd or 4th place is secured? Would things be a bit more furious and exciting if only 1/2 CL places were up for grabs?
I’m not advocating automatic qualification for Celtic -although it’s not that long ago since it was the case. But I do feel that it should ONLY be champions in the final 32 clubs , and ONLY champions who should have the right to get there. A simple 1/2 round pre-qualification phase would provide better audience fare than the current slog anyway.
I can’t help thinking how exciting the competition would actually look if it genuinely was ‘Champions’ in that league.
This is how the champion clubs from Scotland, Holland, Norway, Sweden etc would develop and improve . Not by being excluded basically on financial grounds.
I think without question the ‘Champions League product would improve greatly as well’
Right now – it’s boring! Very very boring!
But there’s an emperors new clothes situation going on where nobody involved will say the ‘wrong thing’… the CL gravy train is too attractive for the clubs, pundits, tv companies and fans of the ‘pretender clubs’ to give up.
Alas – another all-Spanish , all- English semi final / final scenario looks very very likely yet again.
I’m very deflated at Celtic’s exit from the competition… but I’m far more disappointed at the way OUR top European club competition has been hijacked to the benefit of a four or five nation cartel…
You’re right but i think if Uefa were pushed on the name’The champions league’ they would just change the name.
Absolutely 100 percent on the money Pat!! Couldn’t emphasise the point any better. IN FACT! It’s because of the numbers stitch up that from this season and every season until it changes I am BOYCOTTING THE SO CALLED CHAMPIONS LEAGUE. It should be called the league of greed.
Like you stated it’s boring, I’m fed up watching the same teams every year in the last 8. Totally farcical. Uefa in fact in my mind have shot themselves in the foot by denying the likes of celtic, with a huge ex pat global following direct access into the CL (and yes there are other teams out there like us, like the Greek teams for example) because if these people have any sense we should all be boycotting watching it.
For me the only answer is a breakaway north Atlantic tournament type thing that was mentioned a decade or so ago. No more juming through UEFA (Useless European Football Aristocrats! !) hoops, pardon the pun!!
Phil; curious why you would say budgets will be cut and maybe players sold? Celtic are sitting on a substantial amount of cash from CL gains, large transfer fees from Armstrong & VVD as well as increased sponsorship. Surely this event was precisely the reason for holding on to some of the money as they did.
As for player sales, they are not a necessity, at least in the short term (as above). However, what is needed is for a large group of players to be moved on, and off the payroll. Take a look at these names and tell me what purpose they serve on the club; Ralston, Miller, Commper, Allan, Christie, Benyu. Also throw in that we carry 4 goalkeepers as well as Bitton out on injury. That is probably a nice chunk of change going out the door every month.
We focus a lot on the finances of Sevco, and it is good craic, but maybe we need to be looking more close at what is going on with Celtic’s accounts?
We may well have made good money in the last couple of years but our wage bill is astronomical.
The money we have earned goes on the day to day running of the club plus a lot goes on the dumplings that Brendan has signed.
The money does not just sit in a high interest account you know.
Let’s not forget these bloody disco lights that are a source of great merriment for everyone apart from us.
Of the seventeen signing Brendan has made, NINE are not worth the money. Many say he is a great manager, but previous clubs have dumped him like a hot potato. It’s not hard to win the Scottish Premiership with Celtic’s resources and I would suggest there are far better mangers out there that Celtic should have considered before taking him on.
Oh well we will see who Desmond decides he can easily replace, Brendan or PL.
Personally think Brendan is for the off and Celtic should invest some of the huge sums they have in someone of Mourinho’s standard.
Two points from winning the EPL. Sounds like a joke manager.
Rewarded by losing his two best attacking players or 60 goals the next season to injury and transfer. Replaced by Mario Balotelli for the Champions league. A player who he didn’t even want. But as Brendan said at the time “you have to have somebody”.
Managed Swansea to promotion from the Championship by playoff followed by finishing 11th in their first year in the EPL.
I know the “hot potato” comment is just ignorance on your part. But really, Brendan just led you to Double Treble.
I watched Fabian Schär in his Basel years and always thought he was a rough diamond and not too good in the air. I thought Celtic abandoned any intention of signing him after a few “misjudgments” at the world cup. He got suspended, and I think it was for two bookings rather than one but in any case I do remember one of his booking being for the most ungainly “big lassie” challenge you’ll ever see. Newcastly are welcome to him.
13 of BR signings currently in the squad. Only two started last night and one of them sold the jersey both home and away. Up against a team that have spent next to nothing in transfer market. Fact.
On the wider issue of Peter Lawwell, there’s a reason Dermot Desmond – a very smart and successful businessman – has kept him in post for so long. The reason is that – despite the stick he’s consistently taken from sections of the Celtic support – for more than a decade, not just since the Deila era – he has been first rate at doing his job. And it’s a job which, in fairness, the great majority of his fan-critics wouldn’t have the first idea how to do, or even know what it consists of. Desmond has had to fend off a number of approaches for his prize Chief Exec from major clubs outside Scotland – hence the significant and often-criticised pay packet Lawwell takes home.
Has his era passed now? It could be. But one thing is beyond doubt – it will be extremely hard to replace him with someone else of similar calibre, especially someone willing to be as loyal to the club and to provide the long-term stability he has.
If he does go now, he should go with the profound gratitude of all Celtic supporters. He has been a primary factor in the financial chasm that’s opened up between Celtic and their city rivals. The reason Rangers FC was liquidated – the real, underlying reason – was 15 years of crushing operating losses, at a time and in an environment where Celtic – somehow – managed to run at a modest, sustainable profit.
That’s got to be worth something.
I keep thinking about Clint’s Dirty Harry quote “Mans got to know his limitations.” Sorry.
budgets have to be cut?, players have to be sold?…we have spent very little of the £60m+ CL money from the past 2 years…. on top of that we have the money from the sales of VVD sell on clause, Armstrong ect. Even when you add the purchase of French Eddy it still puts us in a positive net spend.
Our Chairman was even boasting in January that we had £30m+ sitting in the bank.
There are no excuses for the lack of summer recruitment, yes, we have to be prudent, but to start a season on a weaker footing than at the end of the previous one after 50k+ season ticket sales, a double treble and 2 years of CL qualification money is absolutely criminal.
I have to dissent from the idea that Celtic’s European exit was due to failure to sign a couple of players in the weeks leading up to the AEK tie.
Anyone who closely watches the prices on European football matches will tell you that a new signing by either team, in the increasingly short period before the qualifiers, will barely produce a flicker in the odds on offer. One player, or even two players, who may or may not be an improvement on the current ones – even a marquee player who is a clear improvement – makes very little difference in the bookmakers’ eyes to the chances of a team progressing in any given tie. The timescales are too short for the players to bed in, get match fit, get to know the way the team plays, get to know their teammates, etc etc. That goes double for defenders brought in at short notice, given that the main thing about a quality defence is a matter of working relationships and mutual understanding developed over many months.
No, I think the fact is that – partly due to UEFA’s rejigging (again) of the qualifying process, to favour (yet further) teams from the wealthiest leagues – Celtic simply came up against a team better than those they’ve faced in the last two seasons. They came up against a team of similar quality to themselves – and when that happens, you go out roughly 50% of the time. It’s life.
The absence of new summer signings is regrettable, and a bit of a debacle let’s be honest, but it’s not a significant factor in a one-off European tie in the first half of August – for Celtic or for any given club. Unless the bookies are idiots who just don’t get it, which has not generally been my experience.
whilst I agree with large sections of your post, the fact is we have had 5 transfer windows to address our defensive frailties, and we have simply failed to do so.
I don’t agree, our main failing is in the centre of the defence, if this was rectified I think we would still be in the CL.
I take your point. However Schar was identified pre world cup.Had he or A.N. Other, been brought in and been available from the 2nd round onwards then they could have made an impact. Scrabbling around in the week before playing a tie is rarely productive.
PL (& others) needs to realise that waiting until the English window closes to get players at a lower cost is an extremely risky strategy which, even when successful, for the reasons you outline, puts our progress on the pitch at risk. The lack of progress this week will cost more than we would have paid for a a competent CB and McGinn combined.
I suspect it’s maybe not so much a matter of getting players at a lower cost as getting them at all. A lot of business is done in the last couple of days of the English window, as clubs’ time and options run out. And a lot of players would simply rather be playing in the EPL than up here. Many of them will wait till that option is closed off before committing to any SPFL club, even when that club is Celtic.
My own opinion is that 90% of transfer procrastination is down to players and their agents, who stand to gain by waiting – as opposed to buying clubs and their Chief Execs, who generally don’t.
The bookies had Celtic favourites in both ties! ?
Celtic were favourites to win the first leg against AEK because of home advantage. AEK were clear favourites to qualify going into the 2nd leg – Around 1.67 AEK / 2.5 Celtic.
My point is that – as with almost all Euro games – purchase of a new player by either side would barely have shifted those odds, in either direction.
Michael, this isnt a debate about bookies odds. Frankly, who cares?! Its about Celtic not providing the quality additions the manager asked for at the beginning of the summer. The essence of your point is players in the lead up to the AEK game not making a difference or affecting bookies odds. Our point is they new additions should have been brought in when BR asked for them, in which case they would have had enough training sessions, time with the manager and a few professional matches under their belt with their new team mates to better assist our chances of qualification. Its not just about AEK mate and I dont get what your ‘bookies say’ narrative means. Its completely irrelevant in the wider argument.
I am not sure AEK were of a very high standard at all. I have little doubt that had Celtic signed Christiano Piccini the result would have been very different. Lustig’s incompetence home and away cost us the tie, he was shocking. I take your point about one or two players not making a difference as a general rule, but if there was ever an occasion when one player would have made a difference it was this tie.
Dermot does indeed know what to do and that if he doesn’t do it quickly he will personally carry – jus6tifiably – all the blame and the prima donna who thinks he’s going to benefit if Brendan goes will have another laugh at all of us. Dermot has had all this spelled out to him.