I’ve said it before: the Europa League is now our level. It’s not difficult to admit that we aren’t a Champions League team because the reality is that we are far from it. But Celtic qualified on merit as Scotland’s Champions, and we owe it to them to compete.
As I’ve previously stated, the Europa League is now our level. It’s not difficult to admit that we aren’t a Champions League team because, in reality, we aren’t. Celtic, on the other hand, qualified on merit as Scotland’s Champions, and we owe it to them to compete.
Some teams are doing better than Celtic, but the general rule remains that outside of the elite, super-rich clubs from the top leagues, the rest are nothing more than cannon fodder in the Champions League.
The Europa League is, admittedly, our level, but getting there is difficult because we seem to keep winning the league, and long may that continue. Last night, Rangers demonstrated that the top teams in Scottish football can still compete at the Europa League level.
They also demonstrated last season that Champions League football is beyond the Scottish game, with six humiliating defeats – including a 7-1 thrashing at home to Liverpool – and the all-time record as the worst performing side in the Champions League.
After the latest humiliating defeat in Madrid, their fans had the audacity to mock Celtic.
I am confident that we would easily qualify from the Europa League group that they are in. Instead, we still have a slim chance of finishing second or third, but in reality, we will finish last, which we can’t complain about given what we’ve been through thus far.
If we win the league this season, we may be able to compete in the newly revamped Champions League. If we want to compete, we need to reconsider our transfer strategy and drastically rethink our squad structure.
We must also acknowledge that the structure of the impoverished Scottish game is failing Celtic B team players, and that playing in the Lowland league will never develop a first team player. A creative solution is desperately needed.
If the status quo remains, we will be setting ourselves up for another year of cannon fodder hammerings. Football-wise, we’d be better off making a run in the Europa League, but that door is unlikely to open unless we can pick up enough points to move off the bottom spot in the Champions League group stages.
Even that appears to be a bridge too far for Celtic based on current evidence.
