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tic silverware. A lengthy run in the Europa League could also provide balm for the wounds opened up by defeat in Athens. With Celtic likely to face Lithuanian club Suduva in the play-off round, there are echoes from 2002 when Martin O’neill’s side were eliminated from the Champions League in the third qualifying round by Basel.

Back then, as now, the Celtic fans expressed dismay at the club’s summer recruitment which left them distinctly unimpressed by the signings of Ulrik Laursen from Hibs, David Fernandez from Livingston and Magnus Hedman from Coventry. The board were accused of failing to support O’neill on the back of his success in reaching the Champions League group stage the previous season.

Those gripes were soon forgotten when Celtic dropped into the Uefa Cup and, starting out with a 10-1 aggregate victory over Suduva, made it all the way to the final in Seville. It might be too much to expect history to repeat itself and Celtic fans are unlikely to be making advance travel plans for the Europa League final in Baku next May.

The absence of the Champions League anthem will be sorely felt at Celtic Park in the coming months. The task now facing Rodgers, and his board of directors, is to ensure it is not the harbinger of a wider or more damaging decline for his team.