Celtic were dumped out of the Champions League this evening after a defeat on penalties to Kairat Almaty. Just months after losing the Scottish Cup Final on spot kicks Brendan Rodgers’ side were again beaten after a disappointing 120 minutes of football in the UCL Playoff.
Celtic supporters will bemoan the club’s lack of investment this summer when attacking reinforcements were glaring required as the route to this latest European humbling. However, last January, Celtic had the opportunity to build with these European games in mind and plan ahead.
After securing passage to the knockout phase of the UCL, Kyogo looked set to leave the club for Rennes. It was a surprising development that Jota would return to the club and indeed a welcome one. Celtic were struggling out wide and required cover to supplement Daizen Maeda and Nicolas Kühn, who had enjoyed a wonderful UCL campaign. Kyogo departed and Celtic were reportedly considering a late move for Mathias Kvistgaarden and Sondre Ørjasæter. Neither move transpired and Celtic added Jeff Schlupp on a loan deal with the club opting against paying a ‘January premium’ with sources indicating that they’d make their moves in the summer.
UEFA Champions League Celtic Glasgow vs Young Boys Bern, Celtic Park. Goal celebration by Kyogo Furuhashi however VAR rules out the goal. Photo Joeran Steinsiek IMAGO
The decision not to replace Kyogo would be vindicated by Maeda’s excellent form through the middle but given the Japanese star had moved through the middle, there was a lack of depth on the outside. Kühn was being linked with moves away from the club in the summer and it was widely expected that this would follow as the season progressed.
Celtic looked tired in the latter part of the season and the manager spoke at length about the squad requiring quality, pace and power. Jota had arrived and would bring quality but at the expense of the deadly Kyogo. At Tannadice Jota would suffer an injury that would take him out of contention until 2026, something that the club have known about since the end of last season.
Jota celebrates. Celtic Champions 2025. Dundee United v Celtic, 26 April 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Ultimately Celtic lost out to Aberdeen at Hampden after an insipid performance, which mirrored the legs against Kairat. There was a real lack of urgency and quality that had been put down to a leggy team at the end of the season. The lack of quality forward options in turn meant that Celtic lost the chance at a Treble and Jimmy Thelin’s side capitalised.
This summer started with the brilliant re-signing of Kieran Tierney. It was hoped that it was a statement of intent from the manager to get his players in and play the way that he wanted. The Irishman wanted cover for Tierney, which is still outstanding, to allow the Scottish internationalist to play as many games as he could but stave off the threat of injury. The main focus had been the acquisition of wingers and a striker to replace Kyogo and Kühn, who the club allowed to leave for FC Como.
Peter Lawwell, Michael Nicholson and Christopher McKay watch on as Celtic draw 0-0 with Kairat at Celtic Park in the UEFA Champions League play-off match, worth over £40m to the winners.
Remarkably, the rumours cooled and the targets – Jakob Breum and Michel-Ange Balikwisha, appeared to be in contention. The UCL deadline came and went and no reinforcements were added. What you got was a blunted instrument trying to breakdown a well drilled unit. Celtic’s hierarchy whether by circumstance or arrogance went into the biggest games of the season with a squad that did not have the necessary quality to play European football.
Perhaps Celtic had made arrogant assumptions about the team that had a lower UEFA rating than St Johnstone, an arrogant assumption that they’d simply blow them away. European football is seldom straight forward and this board, who have overseen defeats to Malmo, Maribor, Cluj and Ferencvaros in recent years, will know that.
Brendan’s side drop into the Europa League, which it is fair to say is probably the level. This means that Celtic will have to play their European Football on Thursday nights this year and it looks like they’ll add signings in the coming days. It is, albeit, too little too late for the UCL ambitions and frankly unacceptable that the club have allowed the manager to go into a game of this magnitude without adding either a striker or a winger.
With these wankers that run the club is anyone surprised? Celtic fans please wake up – don’t buy Europa league tickets or any merchandise, only if you take money out of these men’s wallets will they start to listen
I have decided that I will no longer follow Celtic. I cannot continue to put my nerves through the ringer because of that miserly and incompetent Board. Life is too short and they don’t put any money in my pocket, so henceforth I don’t want to know anything about Celtic. It’s just a sport at the end of the day, not worth all the sorrow that Board inflicts on the club with regularity.
That having been said, there was more than enough talent in that Celtic team to blow Kairat away. They failed to do that because of the negative football played by their so-called “elite manager”. Brendan Rodgers is not a victim of the Board, he’s part of the problem and should go along with them and half that useless team, starting with Adam Idah. On that note, I sign off permanently.
The board are so out of touch with football and modern management. They lack decisiveness, support for the staff (manager & players), and they lack basic communication skills. They are arrogant, spineless (hide when issues arrise), and it would appear stupid as loosing your best 3 front players, which was the reason for success last year and thinking that was ok as the players left in those positions were just as good has proven them to be indeed stupid beyond belief.
Tonight we are a laughing stock and it is all down to the board’s failures as mentioned above.
Desmond is an itelligent guy and has appointed men to deal with the day to day running of the club. Well it is blatantly obvious to everyone and their granny that these spineless, inept individuals are not fit for purpose!
A change at the top table is not only required but essential, if Celtic do not get UCL football next year and have a successful run in the Europa league this year then with Scotland’s coefficiant falling of a cliff this year, the 27-28 season brings 3 qualifiers. If we can’t beat a team 260 places below us this year then we have no hope of doing it in a couple of years time.
Also it is worth pointing out that Celtic are trying to keep their best players (signing Maeda on a new contract) and so on. If you were Maeda, Hatate, Engels, Nygren and so on, would Celtic now be a club that you want to be at, that helps you (as in the staff), supports you, progresses the football team and in turn the club?
No is the loud reply that is being screamed from the heavens. What a joke those in the suits are!
I wouldn’t be angry at Rodgers if he hands in his notice this week and walks, I would!
This has happened too often, as noted in the excellent article, for it to be ignorance, even arrogance is far fetched at this point!
The problem, as always, is that so so many are conditioned to just support blindly, we are a tribe we must be better than other tribe, it is one of the bizzare aspects of crowd manipulation!
Ive stopped all financial support, little that it is being overseas, however, BR is just as culpable IMHO, if he can’t beat KA home or away with our squad, he is either making a point or not at the standard required!
We will no doubt rock up to snake mountain and win and then everything will be roses once again, absolutely pitiful!
Like my mother always said, not angry, just disappointed
I was at the game last week and so whilst gutted right now, I’m not surprised at tonight’s humiliation. We are so bereft of quality in the final third. This failure lies with a board lacking any real ambition and I feel so sorry for Brendan Rogers. The real frustration is that we can do nothing as a fan base to effect real change, i for one will be boycotting the EL package.
Not true, if we came together as a fan base we can effect change in a relatively short space of time, the rebels and the bunnet showed that!
Problem is, we’re so conditioned to just support regardless we’ve forgotten what we are supposed to be trying to achieve!!
Sickening doesn’t quite cover it!