Without making any premature assumptions about what Europe next season is going to look like as far as Celtic are concerned, it is nevertheless very obvious to me that this will be the real test of Ange Postecoglou.
For many years, given the odd high spot now and again, Celtic’s record in Europe has been absolutely deplorable, and indeed a disgrace to the club. This season for example featured a loss to Bodo Glimt, but there have been other equally humiliating experiences, and frankly, this has to stop.
Ange will be judged on how well he rises to this challenge. We are not yet asking for winning the Champions League – although no reason why we can’t dream (as Ange does himself) – but we are asking for a major impact to be made in Europe. That is not asking for too much.
Success elsewhere in Glasgow has proved that it is possible for a Scottish side to do well. Indeed the other side of that coin is that there is no real excuse for Celtic. A club with a huge support like Celtic, with a stadium capable of engendering an atmosphere far superior to any place else and with a pedigree like we have including once having been called the Champions of Europe, must be expected to produce the goods on the European stage as well as the Scottish one.
We have mentioned the success elsewhere in Glasgow. We have also noticed that in the last couple of games against that opposition, we have finished the weaker side. Might I suggest that, far from the bland nonsense of being “rested” before every game, the problem may be that we are “rested” far too much, and that what might have really stimulated us would have been a run in Europe.
I cannot really remember anyone ever making excuses for the great side of 1967 on the grounds that they were “tired”, and I must look with grave suspicion on any statement to the effect that professional players cannot play two games in a week. Indeed, any professional football player worth his salt will want to play two games per week!
But leaving that aside, it is now the task of Ange to make sure that we are ready for the European challenge whenever it comes. Players must be signed NOW and kept NOW. They must also be prepared for the task that lies ahead. We must never again have a situation like we had in August 2019 when Kieran Tierney was transferred when we were actually playing a European tie against Cluj! Incredible, but true.
That was possibly the saddest day of our recent past, and frankly, it smacked of amateurism.
But now is the time to look forward. We have some business to finish off this season, then it is holiday time, but the Scottish season restarts at the end of July. We must be ready, and we really need this year to have a run in Europe. Celtic must mean that.
David Potter
