PERU ACE IN DRUGS BAN

PERU captain Paolo Guerrero will miss his country’s first World Cup for 36 years after testing positive for cocaine.

The Flamengo forward, 33, is his nation’s all-time record goalscorer with 33 goals from 84 games but failed a drugs test after the goalless draw with Argentina on October 5.

Ex-Bayern Munich kid Guerrero was initially suspended by FIFA on November 3 but has now been banned for 12 months, starting from the date of his suspension.

FIFA confirmed the player had tested positive for cocaine which is categorised as a stimulant and is included on the World Anti-Doping Agency list of performanceenhancing substances.

FIFA added: “By testing positive for a prohibited substance, the player has violated article 6 of FIFA’s Anti-Doping Regulations and, as such, contravened article 63 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code.”

Guerrero played in Bayern’s first team for two seasons as a teen between 2004-06 before moving on to Hamburg for six years. He then went to Brazil in 2012.

Peru qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time since 1982 by beating New Zealand in last month’s two-legged play-off in the absence of the banned hitman. THERE is no doubt staying in Europe beyond Christmas is an achievement for Celtic given the Champions League group they landed.

But don’t try to tell me this season’s campaign has seen progress on the big stage.

At best Celtic have hit a plateau in Europe – at worst they have gone backwards.

It was job done in terms of being in the Europa League in the New Year but if I was still in a Celtic shirt and was looking back at this year’s group I would feel nothing but a sense of total disappointment.

There have been too many times when too many players simply haven’t turned up and the most worrying thing for me has been this culture of acceptance.

It’s not acceptable to lose at home to Anderlecht. It certainly wasn’t acceptable to lose fives and sevens to PSG.

A hour in Belgium and a decent display against Bayern Munich at home was the sum total of the campaign and there’s no way you can dress it up as anything other than a disappointment.

But it’s this shrugging of the shoulders and acceptance of certain results that gets me angry.

Don’t give me this b ****** s about budgets. I’m sick of hearing it. If it was just about the budgets then don’t bother turning up.

The alarm bells were going off after PSG put seven past them and the players came out with this stuff about the French side being too good to live with.

They shouldn’t be talking up the opposition – they should be looking at themselves.

If you are going to simply put the hands up and say there’s no chance of competing, what’s the point of being there in the first place?

Just write to UEFA now and say we’ll take the £30million but we’ll not bother playing in the games, thank you very much.

It’s utter nonsense. Yes, PSG had Neymar. But there has always been and always will be a player like Neymar.

Look at my time. We had Didier Agathe – a guy who cost about 30 grand and at the time didn’t even look like a five-a-side player – up against Ronaldinho. He didn’t just roll over because he thought the Brazilian was better.

He saw it as a battle. It’s man against man. You need that right across the pitch in the Champions League but for me Celtic have too many players who don’t think they belong at that level.

I know Brendan Rodgers said on Tuesday too many believe they are Champions League players but need to prove it. It’s easy to say too many don’t believe they are Champions League players.

I never once stood in a tunnel and thought that we couldn’t win a game.

The other night against Anderlecht – and in general in Europe – there are too many in the Celtic team who don’t take responsibility on the pitch.

They would be screwed without Scott Brown because he does. But too many others don’t seem to have the ability to make decisions on the pitch.

It’s almost like they are so dependant on their manager they can’t think for themselves.

I saw players looking over at Brendan on Tuesday in the opening 20 minutes. They are almost robotic.

The manager saw the problems and fixed them to an extent at half-time but you need to have leaders on the park willing to grab the game by the scruff of the neck.

Brendan doesn’t have a remote control. He needs his men to

Too many in the Celtic team don’t take responsibility