Now is not the time to stand still
IT is the fear that stalks Celtic fans in those long dark hours of introspection; the dreaded suspicion that regression on the European stage will carry serious domestic repercussions.
They are perfectly entitled to fret and fuss over the threat of greater suffering to come. After all, they’ve had a hard few days.
Bullied at Tynecastle and then knocked over in Athens, Brendan Rodgers’ team suddenly look a side greatly diminished by recent experience. Exposed, even.
It’s entirely fair to ask, then, whether their feeble Champions League failure — and all of the rancour stirred up before and after their loss to AEK — is merely representative of a wider problem.
To put it bluntly, do Celtic really still deserve to be prohibitively priced odds-on favourites to win the Premiership title?
Is it genuinely unthinkable that their run of consecutive league flags will end sooner than anyone dared predict?
The bookies are rarely wrong. Punters can take solace from that fact of life.
Yet supporters who have been singing about Ten In A Row since title No 4 was halfway in the bag cannot help but feel a little troubled by developments.
They know how quickly a club’s fortunes can flounder on the rocks of internal unrest, creating a brittle shell likely to implode under even modest external pressure.
They cannot be blind to improvements made at clubs previously unable to mount a proper title challenge.
Fans who have revelled in Rodgers’ triumphs appear torn between fearing his imminent departure, a direct effect of underinvestment from on high, and calling him out for wasting money on absolute duds.
And they will be only too aware that missing out on a Champions League pot of nearly £40million is hardly likely to bring board and manager closer together on the need to spend wisely.
Former Celtic striker Andy Walker, noting that the Invincible season and last year’s second straight Treble deserved to be recognised as huge achievements, issued a pretty stark warning yesterday.
‘What you’ve got to realise now is that, as it stands, Celtic are standing still — and Rangers aren’t,’ said Walker, now one of the most influential Scottish pundits on Sky TV.
‘Rangers under Steven Gerrard will be a much stronger force this season.
‘You already saw at the weekend that Hearts are a much better team, they beat Celtic.
‘I think Celtic are up against it this season. As they have been over the last couple of seasons.
‘It’s always difficult, going to Tynecastle, going to Ibrox, going to Pittodrie.
‘And, if you stand still, you’ll lose a lot more than Celtic have done over the last couple of seasons.
‘I think you only have to look at the rejuvenation of the squad that Craig Levein had at Hearts. They thoroughly deserved their victory at the weekend.
‘We know that Rangers are strengthening under Steven Gerrard.
‘And it beggars belief that, at this point of the season, Celtic haven’t strengthened.
‘They’ve lost players, Brendan Rodgers has said himself that they’re weaker.
‘Clearly Steven Gerrard has got everyone at Rangers, the players and fans, together and has given them a belief that they can compete. Rangers have been really poor over recent seasons. But he’s been given a bit of money to spend and he’s spent it wisely.
‘Rangers are certainly an upgrade on the team we’ve seen in recent years.
‘If you are a club like Celtic, who are standing still, and Rangers are improving, that’s a very difficult road to go down. And I don’t think it’s one the Celtic supporters will be happy with.
‘You’ve got to remember that the league is very tight, very competitive — and I think teams can take points off each other.
‘The Celtic-Rangers game in a couple of weeks will be a fascinating contest.’
Although polite requests for cool heads and calm thinking tend to be lost amid the uproar of a major European reversal, Rodgers will rightly point to reasons for continued confidence in his team.
When Odsonne Edouard and Moussa Dembele are fit then, along with Leigh Griffiths, Celtic have three strikers who would walk into any other team in Scotland; going forward, they’re undoubtedly the best in the country.
But the Dedryck Boyata situation has merely exposed the lack of quality cover in defence. With Boyata unlikely to play for the club again, that’s an area in dire need of swift reinforcement.
Before he even turns his attention to that pressing requirement, Rodgers simply has to get his team winning again. Or else.
Former Celtic and Scotland boss Gordon Strachan, now an ambassador for a bookmaking company, tried his best yesterday to explain the kind of frenzy likely to be provoked by his old club stumbling in the Champions League qualifiers.
‘It’s mayhem,’ he declared. ‘You think there are big teams which come under scrutiny in England. But nothing comes close to what is going on at Celtic at the moment — everyone asking why and how.
‘And, as a manager, you have to take the hit, unfortunately for Brendan.
‘What advice would I give him? Sleep through till Friday! No, it’s like everything as the Celtic manager: you get up, brush yourself down, walk in there with the eyes of the nation on you, and you deal with it.’
The first step to recovery lies not in Lithuania or Latvia next Thursday, but at Firhill on Saturday.
A Betfred Cup tie against Championship opposition. A banana skin tie, certainly. But not one to be feared by even the most troubled Celtic soul. Right?