Celtic’s decline and fall in European football is “thoroughly depressing”
Celtic’s decline and fall from grace in European football has been described as “thoroughly depressing” by former striker Chris Sutton…
Following on from what looked like a significant home result against the Austrian Champions in the first leg of the Champions League playoff, Celtic opened the scoring in Linz to go 4-0 ahead on aggregate before collapsing to a 5-4 aggregate defeat.
That meant Celtic dropping into the Europa League and the chequebook being well and truly put away as Martin O’Neill missed out on his preferred signing targets due to boardroom caution and money holding at Dermot Desmond’s command.
Three games into the Europa League campaign and Celtic are pointless, sitting in second bottom spot in the table and have suffered three bruising defeats to Ferencvaros at Celtic Park (3-1), Benfica in Lisbon (4-1) and Celta Vigo at Paradise on Thursday evening.
“It’s thoroughly depressing. It’s one thing accepting getting your backsides booted by PSG, Barcelona or Borussia Dortmund,” Chris Sutton observed in his weekly column in Daily Record. “But getting a chasing by LASK, Ferencvaros and Celta Vigo?
“It’s painful. I don’t like harping back but there was a time when teams didn’t enjoy coming to Celtic Park. Now it’s party time. Celta Vigo brought a record number of fans the other night – because they knew there was a good chance of seeing a win.
“That’s the worst thing. The defeat was not surprising. It was entirely predictable. Some of us have been saying it for weeks and months. O’Neill will take a lot of responsibility, and rightly so, but everyone can see he’s been sold short in terms of personnel.
“The old cliche about a team only being as strong as its bench – take a look at Celtic’s subs the other night. Callum Osmand went off with cramp but it says it all: so much hope is being placed on a kid coming back from long-term injuries and only making his second senior start.
The issues are all over the park. The goalkeeping situation has backfired as well. Some people reckon Sam Johnstone should have done better for Celta Vigo’s equaliser. I think that’s a bit harsh, but it doesn’t matter. The rotation between him and Viljami Sinisalo hasn’t helped either,” Sutton stated.
He added: “Sinisalo was undermined by being dropped a few weeks ago and it might have hit his confidence. He gets back in but is out again soon after and Johnstone still doesn’t look the most comfortable. O’Neill has another big decision this weekend but it really should be a case of picking his best keeper and getting on with it.
“Mind you, this should have been nailed down months ago as Celtic had a year to prepare for Kasper Schmeichel leaving. It’s just another example of the muddled-up thinking at the club.”
