Carl: We’ll use lessons next year in Europe
IT’S hardly been a case of baby steps for Angeball.
In just one season Celtic have used it to sweep all before them on the domestic stage and the proof should come at Tannadice tonight when manager Postecoglou and his players hope to wrap up a top-flight title to go with the League Cup which is already on display in the cabinet.
But now Carl Starfelt believes the next stage of this Aussie revolution will be rolling it out across the continent in next season’s Champions League.
If there has been one source of regret from an otherwise spectacular first season in Scottish football, it will go down as a recurring nightmare which saw Postecoglou’s rebuilt side knocked out of three European competitions in one campaign – as rivals Rangers have stormed to Seville
But Starfelt believes the lessons learned along the way will stand Celtic in good stead to make a proper entrance to the biggest stage of the lot next time out.
The Swede said: “The Champions League is huge. In club football it’s one of the biggest things you can do so it would be massive for all the players and massive for the fans and the club. Everyone would look forward to it.
“We’re not thinking too much now about what could have been in Europe this year. We learned a lot from playing in these games and although not everything was perfect, we went out there to play our football 100 per cent.
“What we know is that it requires a little bit more in Europe. But if we do that then we can also see that it works.
“So the team learned a lot from being in Europe this year and hopefully we can take that into the Champions League next year.”
For Starfelt, it will also present an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of countrymen Henrik Larsson, Johan Mjallby and Mikael Lustig. He said: “The Swedish guys are obviously an inspiration. It would be good to do these things regardless but Celtic has a great reputation in Sweden.”