CELTIC may have qualified for the Europa League last night but their woeful performance meant they missed out on their last chance at a Champions League bonus.
In this year’s competition, for every win, a club will make an extra €1.5 million and for every draw they get €500k.
Celtic went into last night’s game with Anderlecht with high hopes of a performance and the resulting bonus to boost our European coffers just that little bit more.
However, on the night, some of the Celtic players looked spooked and out of their depth as a very average Anderlecht side won at Celtic Park, all be it with an own goal.
Celtic will now drop into the Europa League which was always the goal, but being unseeded means the club will be drawn against high quality opposition – better than Anderlecht.
If Celtic are to make more money in Europe this year they will certainly need to spend as well as find the form that saw the team put three past the Belgian’s away from home!
Money above achievement eh…
Football is (or should be) about achievement. We are still in Europe after Christmas, yes a win last night would have been brilliant, and an achievement in it’s own right, but come on. The negativity surrounding last night is completely over the top.
If this had been a Man U or a Chelsea, the story would have been that they managed the game and got the result they needed to progress. Look at the bigger picture, we finished above a higher seeded team in one of the toughest CL groups.
The performance was appalling. It was worse than the PSG game. That’s the big story here.
Totally outclassed by an average side.
Certain players didn’t look interested, and others looked tired, even though a lot had a rest at the weekend.
The europa league is going to be terrifying.
Considering the almost unequivocal praise this manager and team have had, it is only right that they receive some justified criticism where it is due. Last night’s performance was undoubtedly poor and its correct they cop some flak.
However, to frame the criticism in the context of losing money, considering the tens of millions accumulated by simply qualifying for the Champions League, is absurd.
Well said Sir spot on
Stuart Armstrong should be released from his contract in January, if not today. He hasn’t kicked a ball since signing his extension, and offers nothing to the club anymore, other than perfect hair.
We certainly won’t get the money he was touted for in the summer now.
Why was Griffiths left out on Saturday if he wasn’t going to start last night?
I know Edouard had s great game, but even he couldn’t have expected that to happen.
Seems to me that BR has a real problem with Leigh.
Seen boyata getting a lot of stick for last night. For me he was the only one holding the defence together. Every ball that came in was cleared by him. Ok, his passing was poor, but whose wasn’t?
The midfield were static, if not just plain hiding. He had no outballs at times.
So many times s simple pass was on ofvthe midfielder showed, but opted to stand behind an opponent which allowed the opponent to collect and made the pass look worse.
A few players need to be seriously reavaluated after last night.
Andy, achievement actually leads to money, which means no achievement no money, pretty simple really.
As for the achievement this season in finishing third is an improvement, a step in the right direction, there is no doubt whatsoever that the reason for that is the disarray Anderlecht just happened to be in when we met them over there, Anderlecht was a truer reflection of themselves last night and if they had made the managerial changes much earlier then they would have been a far greater obstacle than they were in Brussels, this is not negativity, it is facing the truth and I have no doubt we will improve immeasurably over the next three or four seasons, but lets tell it how it is, last seasons CL produced better perfomances than this years, the thing is though we know we are building and it will be a hard fight, but lets not blind ourseves to the truth and shout “negativity” just because it hurts, I can assure you that Brendan won’t be all smiley, smiley behind closed doors. We do the best with what we have at the moment.
Myself, I was disappointed but mostly because of hope, not expectation, I knew we were facing a very much improved and settled side than we had beforehand, they were excellent against Bayern, a very different side indeed, as I said we were fortunate to meet them when we did but I’ll take that, we needed it and the more experience this young side gains then all the better, again negativity is the not the word to use, it’s just seeing what’s there, right in front of your face, Brendan knows, Brendan will fix it.
Money is the absolute least of our problems….don’t know why you stupidly chose to highlight that.
Main points from me about last night…
BR got the set-up wrong from the get go….and took far too long to change it.
Armstrong…who had a howler…and McGregor who was invisible…should never have started.
Control of the mid-field was key last night …and these two were posted missing.
Neither could tackle a fish supper…so why they played is beyond me.
Ntcham made a big difference when he came on…Rogic not so much.
What didn’t help was …just about every player chose last night to have a stinker…including Tierney…who is usually first class.
And to criticise Boyata for his passing…??
When I played and coached…Centre Backs weren’t exactly encouraged to stroll forward and pick out a killer pass….give the guy a break.
Also…I disagree with those who bad mouthed Anderlecht….I thought their work rate and build up play was really good to watch…backed up a more than decent defence…who had an easy time admittedly.
Their only failure was a genuine striker…which for us….was just as well.
As for the Europa League…we still aren’t at European level…so we’ll take what we get.
Hope BR learned from last night.
I disagree with those who bad mouthed Anderlecht….I thought their work rate and build up play was really good to watch…backed up a more than decent defence…who had an easy time admittedly.
Disagree with McGregor. I think the side is better with him in it, but he was as poor as everyone else last night.
Armstrong should have been hooked way before half time. About 30 minutes in I pointed out how bad his body language was. Shoulders were slumped and he was static. He’d given up within the first half hour.
The fact BR didn’t see that, or feel the need to do anything about it is concerning.
He did get so much wrong last night, and I hate to say it, but I’m questioning if he can do it at this level, on our budget atleast.
Hi Derek…
My take on McGregor was…Armstrong put himself into the game…. which was a bad move …as he was poor.
But I genuinely thought McGregor was almost invisible…the game seemed to pass him by.
But its all about opinions.
As for BR….I agree with your thoughts.
HH
Let’s draw breath….. ..
Mike Bhoyle speaks sense. McGregor runs about a lot, IS good on the ball, DOES create, however is poor defensively and appears to do NOTHING to prepare himself as a professional athlete.
He is OK physically in the SPL … just. But as soon as the serious teams come to town, he looks like a schoolboy. Last season Leicester took the ball straight off him every time he touched. He looks like he has never been in the gym. Ridiculous.
Brendan’s failure to be pragmatic is definitely costing us. A goal up against PSG – surely we gotta dig in, pack the midfield, up the work rate, and TRY to reach halftime with a lead or at worst… 1-1. Instead, we go in 4-1 down. Ross County don’t do that at Park head, so how do we know so much better than everyone else?
Well said Sir…!
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We were very very poor on the night and we need to invest in the team, defence in particular, to do better at this level.
And on the night Armstrong and sinclai were simply a hinderence, very poor from both