For Champions League hopes

and Spurs. Last year, they drew Barcelona, Manchester City and Borussia Monchengladbach and won zero from six despite putting in some excellent displays. Barcelona and City’s spending power is well documented but, according to Rodgers, Borussia’s annual budget is £100m bigger than the Glasgow operation.

It will be extremely hard for them to break through that ceiling from their current post, with Rodgers doing his best to mould a force while stymied by the fact that their bread and butter is miles off the elite.

St Johnstone and Rangers went out in the first qualifying round of the Europa League this year while their closest pursuers Aberdeen made it through one round of the competition. Celtic’s performances do actually earn their SPL counterparts a solidarity payment from UEFA and they need that six-figure boost badly.

But it cannot help them to bridge the gap between themselves and Celtic and offer a sterner test on a weekly basis. The Hoops’ dominance over the pack may be enjoyable for their followers, but it’s not enjoyable for too many others and the value of the TV deal reflects that.

Celtic do have some excellent players. Moussa Dembele will eventually go for big money, Stuart Armstrong is a fine midfield player and the ability of the Scotts – Sinclair (left, below) and Brown – is well known.

But they are playing in a division that’s competing for players in League One and League Two. League One is where some of Celtic’s fringe performers have relocated to.

Placed in that context, Rodgers has done extremely well to ease through a sticky phase of qualifying.

However, it would be unrealistic to expect them to emerge from the group stage.

The percentage call is that they will suffer some difficult evenings; there is no shame in that given where they are coming from.

A third-place finish and parachute into Europa League would be an excellent outcome.

They will not be able to threaten the elite without engaging in spending that would be hard to justify unless Qatar come in as sponsors.

Whatever happens, they know their season will end with trophies. But they have already prevailed in their most important cup finals.