Celtic FC: Thursday night, Channel 5

Article by Tom Shanahan

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Walking away from Celtic Park after the defeat to Maribor one feeling engulfed me more than others. It was not anger, frustration or disappointment. It was in fact acceptance.

Ronny Deila stated in his post match press conference that the quality in the current squad is only good enough for the Europa League. I would take this a step further and say that Celtic Football Club as a whole is not worthy of dining at European football’s top table.

Peter Lawwell has claimed in the past that the club goes about its business the same way as established Champions League clubs. This simply cannot be true when the board fail to support managers past and present with reasonable transfer funds.

Neil Lennon performed a minor miracle last season by reaching the Champions League group stage with a last gasp victory over Karagandy. It was evident then that the Celtic squad needed rejuvenated to try and combat Europe’s finest for a second successive year. Instead, during the season Lennon was allowed to bring in Derk Boerrigter, Amido Balde, Virgil Van Dijk, Steven Mouyokolo, Teemu Pukki, Nir Bitton, Stefan Johansen and Leigh Griffiths. Out of these signings it is clear for every Celtic supporter to see that only Van Dijk is capable of competing against top class opposition.

The Celtic board did not learn from their previous errors of judgement and have allowed worse to happen this year. Deila has only been allowed to bring in loan signings as well as Craig Gordon on a free signing.

I wrote previously when Ronny Deila was appointed as manager that it would be a massive achievement for Celtic to reach the Champions League group stages again. This was simply based on the lack of time Deila would have to assess his new squad before the qualifiers started. Add to this the frustration that the manager must feel at not getting his required signings quick enough and it really should not be any great surprise that they failed in their Champions League qualifiers so disastrously.

Deila must take his fair share of the blame too as after an encouraging performance away in Slovenia it looked as if the Hoops had enough to overcome Maribor in the 2nd leg. It was quickly evident however that Celtic did not know how to approach the home tie and seemed happy to try and hold out for a 0-0 result, in the first half especially.

Although Deila and John Collins were clearly visible in the technical area demanding the team push up the pitch and engage the opposition the players looked frightened and unconvinced by their manager’s instructions. Hopefully this is not an indictment of how the players feel deep down about Deila and his backroom staff.

It is now imperative that the squad pick themselves up and look forward to the challenges that they are still to face. I have never been someone who believes without Champions League football Celtic have nothing to look forward to. Every time a Celtic team takes to the field they should have the same attitude whether the opposition is Aberdeen or Ajax.

The domestic treble is up for grabs and that would be an excellent feat if Deila could accomplish it. This achievement would not be scoffed at considering only three teams in Celtic’s history can call themselves treble winners.

The Europa League will also be a great learning curve for Deila and Collins. The management team do not have much European experience between them in a coaching capacity and could use this tournament as a spring board the same way as Lennon did in 2011.

Now is also the perfect time for Peter Lawwell to firmly back his manager in the transfer market and go get players the manager needs to begin his revolution. It is of course too late for this year’s Champions League campaign however, buying players now would give Deila the full season to have a settled team ready for the qualifiers next summer.

The great Jock Stein once said “Celtic jerseys are not for second best…” Now is the time for the Celtic hierarchy to prove to the supporters that second best is still not accepted at this once great European club.

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