A good friend of mine, who has had a long involvement in the beautiful game, sent me his refections after Celtic’s costly and hugely frustrating Champions League exit against Kairat on Tuesday night…
Celtic players appear dejected after losing in the penalty shootout Kairat Almaty v Celtic, UEFA Champions League, Play-Off Round, Second Leg, Football, Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan – 26 Aug 2025Almaty Almaty Central Stadium Kazakhstan Photo Nikita Bassov/Shutterstock
I thought it’s well worth sharing, but no names given at author’s request. I’ll add my own thoughts afterwards. Here goes…
Celtic supporters, Kairat Almaty v Celtic, UEFA Champions League, Play-Off Round, Second Leg, Football, Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan – 26 Aug 2025Almaty Almaty Central Stadium Kazakhstan Photo Nikita Bassov/Shutterstock
Celtic’s Champions League shambles
As you well know, I’m not a follower of the herd. You ought, however, to allow at least some of your regular correspondents to take an alternative view to the aforementioned herd.
Celtic should have beaten Almaty, since they’re no great shakes. Brendan Rodgers, as manager must carry a large proportion of the can, as should the Celtic players.
He always wants to fit the personnel into his way of playing. As a coach for some thirty years without the indulgence of recruiting players, I gradually learned that that is not always possible, and it can be expedient to set up the team in a way which best utilises the players available.
Reo Hatate of Celtic applauds Kairat Almaty v Celtic, UEFA Champions League, Play-Off Round, Second Leg, Football, Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan – 26 Aug 2025Almaty Almaty Central Stadium Kazakhstan Photo Nikita Bassov/Shutterstock
Given that Yang, Idah, McCowan (and now too often), Hatate are not his best players available, he could perhaps have set up a different way.
When you’re fighting a battle, the saying goes, you must first kill the general. This is what our opponents did with Callum McGregor. Why then was Arne Engels or Paulo Bernardo not there beside him?
Short of wingers? Why is Maeda at the centre when patently Shin or Kenny (though as yet untested) would allow Daizen to do what he’s best at on the left?
Kieran Tierney of Celtic Kairat Almaty v Celtic, UEFA Champions League, Play-Off Round, Second Leg, Football, Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan – 26 Aug 2025Almaty Almaty Central Stadium Kazakhstan Photo Nikita Bassov/Shutterstock
Why was Kieran Tierney so quiet? Is Cameron Carter-Vickers fully fit (and settled)? Jota and now Alistair Johnston injured is a big loss to this Celtic squad.
Ach, well. Just sayin’.
Some thoughts of my own on all that….
Brendan Rodgers manager of Celtic Kairat Almaty v Celtic, UEFA Champions League, Play-Off Round, Second Leg, Football, Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan – 26 Aug 2025Almaty Almaty Central Stadium Kazakhstan Photo Nikita Bassov/Shutterstock
Brendan Rodgers has to re-set the narrative at the club and that should hopefully happen before the trip to Ibrox on Sunday. Ahead of that we’ll get the Europa League draw tomorrow and we’ll have to set about doing the best that we can in the circumstances.
The squad has been weakened and the team needs a bigger overhaul than we probably all first thought. Hopefully some players who don’t want to be here, or aren’t really up to the task anyway, will be moved on over the next few days. The transfer window closing will be a relief, that’s for sure.
The Celtic manager has to take responsibility for failing to beat Kairat over two matches without being able to really test their goalkeepers at any stage of the tie. Even in the penalty shoot-out the Celtic efforts were dreadfully poor. And that’s two penalty shoot-out defeats in a row where Kasper Schmeichel hasn’t even come close to saving anything.
Kasper Schmeichel of Celtic Kairat Almaty v Celtic, UEFA Champions League, Play-Off Round, Second Leg, Football, Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan – 26 Aug 2025Almaty Almaty Central Stadium Kazakhstan Photo Nikita Bassov/Shutterstock
Yang tries hard but ultimately it takes more than effort to earn a place at Celtic. Adam Idah is buckling under the pressure, he should not have played any part on Tuesday anyway when Johnny Kenny was there and had scored at the weekend. Daizen’s mind seems elsewhere. I wonder why?
However the biggest issue though was in the middle of the park, allowing Kairat to pick up exactly where they left off at Parkhead. Nygren should have started on the right wing and Engels should have played in the midfield. Hopefully that’s a lesson Brendan heeds for Sunday.
Callum McGregor of Celtic applauds travelling fans after the full time whistle Kairat Almaty v Celtic, UEFA Champions League, Play-Off Round, Second Leg, Football, Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan – 26 Aug 2025Almaty Almaty Central Stadium Kazakhstan Photo Nikita Bassov/Shutterstock
theRangers have plenty of worries of their own, but essentially they were almost certainly going to end up in the Europa League anyway, so there’s no real financial loss in terms of expected revenues. For Celtic that isn’t the case. They went out to a Champions League ready side, we certainly did not. And even if we win the league this season the task of getting through qualifiers is going to become increasingly problematic given our record and the fact that we’re likely to have to play more than one tie to get there.
If things don’t change behind the scenes we’ll have a different manager but the same outcome this time next year. Who will get the blame then? Shaun Maloney? Perhaps John Kennedy?
This is not a new concern for Celtic and just about every manager we’re had in recent times has had the same problem, so to get to the root cause you have to look upstairs and things in the boardroom have to change.
Club Brugge, who lit up our television screens last night, is the perfect example of how it should be done. Their transfer model is indefinitely better than Celtic’s failed punts and projects policy….
Christos Tzolis of Club Brugge celebrates scoring his team’s sixth goal during the UEFA Champions League Play-offs Round Second Leg match between Club Brugge and theRangers at Jan Breydelstadion on August 27, 2025 in Bruges, Belgium. (Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images)
Joaquin Seys of Club Brugge celebrates scoring his team’s fourth goal with teammates during the UEFA Champions League Play-offs Round Second Leg match between Club Brugge and theRangers at Jan Breydelstadion on August 27, 2025 in Bruges, Belgium. (Photo by Alex Bierens de Haan/Getty Images)
Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter. Foreword by Danny McGrain. Published on Celtic Star Books on 5 September 2025. Click on image to pre-order.
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Bruges aren’t even the champions of Belgium, we don’t have that luxury, we demand the league is won every year.
And just like Lennon and Ange, Brodge will be off as Lowell has killed his project. Again.
i like your comments on the blame being down largely to the players and the manager. Also it is incredibly annoying that with Rodgers it is square pegs in round holes and round pegs in square holes solely to fit his pre-set stubborn rigid formations and tactics. Totally agree that on Tuesday and the prior Wednesday selections were wrong and there was never any flexibility in terms of formations and nearly always it is a like for like replacement. We had the players to go 2 up front, we had the players to go with wing backs and 3 CB or McGregor having a deeper partner or 2 so that not every pass had to go through him. We could use a good passing defender such as Murray or JSP as a DM who drops back to be a 3rd CB to let the full backs be wing backs. The possibilities were endless but in essence but we stuck to the same slow lateral and backward passes and no runners. What Kairat also did a lot was just punt the ball deep into our half and then tried to pin us down with their front 3 and midfield pressing while keeping 4 defenders deep (it is often used in womens football where goalies struggle to get kicks from hand or bye kicks that deep and so pins the opposition deep often forcing an error). We had 1 plan which failed for 210 minutes of game time and never did Rodgers try anything new or varied and KA knew exactly what we’d do and never had to adapt to new tactics or formations.
I have my doubts on the adoption of the Club Brugge model as despite all their success domestically and in Europe and having bigger TV revenues they are £30 million in debt and their debt is climbing year by year Effectively spending money they don’t have which is the financial model that drives clubs bankrupt potentially if there is a change in success or change in TV contracts or failures in transfer market and academy players development
I suspect you are old like me and remember the awful spell around 30 years ago where we were so close to bankruptcy and liquidation and disappearing off the face of the football earth until Fergus McCann bought over the club and paid off the debts and renewed the club and stadium etc. I am not sure Celtic would have had such an easy ride from the courts and HMRC and financial markets as our rivals did when they went bankrupt over a decade ago or being allowed to keep so many of their valuable resources such as Ibrox and training ground and players etc when usually a football team (or a company/retail chain/industry) all have to sell off all or most of their assets to pay off debts
For as long as Celtic play in a domestic Scottish league they have no chance of real European success as the TV revenues are too low and the league is too low prestige to attract quality players and our academy structure and player development has been for far too long poor (when i was a boy there was a real conveyor belt of talent at Jock Stein’s disposal to replace Lisbon Lions with Quality street kids and keep the success going on and on but nowadays we rarely get an academy player through to 1st team starter/star and so are forced to gamble in the transfer market and Rodgers has for a long time been a poor analyst of talent and potential in transfers and which players to keep (such as letting Oh and Iwata leave recently and I suspect will be the same for Lagerbielke and Tilio and Palma who will all flourish and develop away from Rodgers who didn’t know how to use them in our team)
We could have and should have spent more over the summer but I am doubtful with the way Rodgers set up the team and how the players played and how demotivated and flat they appeared (possibly also to an extent complacent and thinking they just needed to turn up to win as has been the case often under Rodgers in the 2 and a bit seasons this time around)
However I think the financial model and way of running the club has given us stability and strength which is why we are winning doubles and trebles so often in the last 25 years and almost total domination domestically for the best part of last 15 years
The warning bells should have started ringing in season 3003/2004 when our “elite manager ” wanted to change Kyogo’s style of play and position and then got rid of him whether Kyogo wanted to go or not he still tried and scored even when not playing his natural game
Maeda was poor that season also rubbish crosses and missing chances that would have been simpler to score,it seems he is reverting back to that form this season in front of goal
To finish this the players should have scored over the two games especially at Paradise
They should take a long hard look at themselves and are these the calibre of players Celtic need
Enough of this nonsense about pressure they are not in a war zone ,or worrying about how to support themselves and their families