CELTIC bowed out of the Champions League qualifiers, not to the hands of a far superior side but one that could defend.

A late rally from Scott Sinclair gave Celtic hope but the damage had already been done.

A summer of discontent between the board and the manager has spilled over onto the pitch this evening.

The warning signs were there, but the board banked on Rodgers magic from the previous two seasons to get them to the money pot.

Game Over.

Peter Lawwell and his band of not so merry men have a lot to answer for. To be in such a strong position, arguably the strongest position the club have been in for years, to this.

It’s simply unacceptable. The problems are not hidden, they are in plain sight for all to see and the manager felt compelled to make his grievance public about how the board were going about their business.

Not to say that Rodgers won’t have his share of the blame. He brought in Hendry and Commper to the club in January – two signings that haven’t worked for their own separate reasons.

Add in Boyata being the most selfish Celtic player to grace Parkhead in years and the storm was just enough to knock Celtic off their European perch.

It’s the Europa League play-offs for Celtic now but many people have already made the point – should Celtic continue with the defence they have, they will struggle in that competition.

20 COMMENTS

  1. Shambolic Disgraceful.Without the Support,What would Lawell n Co do.Us the Support Definitely Deserve a lot more than whats been offered on the Pitch.Its been blatantly obvious for Age,We Need Some Quality Defenders.This lies at the Boards Feet.The luck has ran out.A matter of having McGinn in our Grasp for some extra cash.But Naw….Same Old Board.Same Old Nonsense.What a Shambles..Now Boyata too,Something pisitive has to come out of all this,I Hope

    • Only positive,that MAY,come out of this,and that is a big MAY-be,is the board’s might finally,realise we need to
      speculate(buy a capable defence) to accumulate(stay/progress in europe)And at least the money grabbers won’t get their hands on another huge CL bounty,which would have only swelled their coffers,whilst we drew another two big hitters,and endured more embarassing humpings.

  2. All season ticket holders should at the next home game stage a walkout 15mins into the game…and go and stand underneath in the concourse… This board needs to understand we won’t be messed with.

    • That won’t happen Tony because Liarwell knows the fans won’t take it out on the Team..I’ve told fans for years what this creep was like and I was told I was rong..Tonight I’m vindicated..We won’t move any further as long as that mans running our club..HH

  3. BR does not sign any players this is down to Lee Congerton head of Recruitment who along with his team do the scouting and recommendations.
    This guy has failed and spun bullshit in every job he has had.

  4. I’ve warned Fans for years..Lawwell is more interested in building a Hotel than a Team..This falls at his door and nobody else’s..Waiting on getting into the Champions League with that team to get £30m that we’d never see..Never mind throwing him out the back door like Ian Pollock said..Kick him rite out the front door for all of us to see..To say I’m disgusted tonight is an understatement..Heads must roll for this Catastrophe

  5. Already got our season ticket money ,so the support need to stop buying any merchandise or use the refreshment stalls inside Celtic Park,the pocket is the only place that is sensitive to them.

  6. I’m not as angry as I thought I might have been after this result .
    It might be a blessing in disguise.
    Let’s face it we are no where near CL class
    we would have been the whipping Bhoys again.
    If they the board don’t want to invest in the future of Celtic they should all walk away and let someone run it who is willing to spend some money on players .
    This has been on the cards, we have been lucky the last two years to qualify for the CL proper only to get there and get humiliated.

  7. The problem is this a continuous pattern and too many of our fans lap up all the good times without a thought about why the Board refuse to build every time we are in a position of strength. It is not that difficult to see that the parasites running our club have purely self interests at heart. Celtic is no more important to Dermot Desmond, Peter Lawwell and Ian Bankier etc than any of their other major share holdings. Share value is all they care about. They couldn’t care less about the manager, team or fans and little things like how they pay their basic cleaning staff to producing BLUE season tickets and banning the use of relatives and friends sharing a ticket in their absence tell you a lot about the mentality of these people. They are literally the opposite of every value that Brother Walfred epitomised. They are self serving, power hungry millionaires and MPs with Tory values that are completely disconnected with the majority of the support. But what will we do about it. Moan a bit, wait for some token breadcrumbs from the richmans table and then after a few decent result, assume everything is rosey in the garden, until they do it again. In Gods name, why dont we do something more than moan on social media about these people. There is no shame in leaving the stadium in protest or lining the Celtic way every game in protest and continue to do this relentlessly until each and every one of them leave. Personally, I would like to see them hanging from the lampposts on the Celtic way.

  8. Hang on a minute here. I feel the same pain as everyone else. Felt sick to my stomach at what was clearly a great lost opportunity. And frustrated at the events of the past week. But let’s not throw the toys out of the pram, bhoys. Let’s remember that this is the same Board that everyone was praising three weeks ago after they sold Armstrong for $7million and signed Edouard for $9million. Great piece of business, people were saying. Better than that lot across the river. Now the same Board are getting slaughtered.

    OK, something obviously went wrong with McGinn. But the same Board have also kept Dembele, Tierney and Rogic. As far as Boyata is concerned, Brendan said last week that he wanted to keep him unless we had a quality replacement. The fans would have crucified the Board if we had let him go last week in light of those comments, but now everyone is saying they are a bunch of donkeys for keeping him and turning down a bid of $9million. As for getting a replacement, the Board tried to get DeNayer but he wouldn’t come. I haven’t seen anyone identify another central defender we could afford who was real quality. I know that sounds ridiculous, but does anyone actually have a single candidate. And if we had spent well over the odds, as most people seem to believe was necessary, would it have caused problems with other players getting paid less? Can you justify breaking the entire wage structure for years to come by betting that you will qualify for the CL each and every year. We are already paying our players twice what Rangers play theirs. How far do you go down that path without the TV money that our English competition have in their back pockets.

    Maybe we should have been willing to break the bank, but you can’t say it was a no brainer, especially for the people who carry the can for these decisions at the end of the day. We trust these people not to lead us down the Sevco path and they have done that. These people are not the Whytes or the Kellys. They have no personal agenda like those pariahs. These people are trying to do what they honestly believe is best for the Club. You may disagree with their decisions but some of the stuff being written about the Board — and Lawwell in particular — is just unfair. We are blaming them for the situation we find ourselves in vis-a-vis TV money and the Scottish League. But who has a solution to that problem? Anyone?

    In any case, you can’t simply blame the AEK results on the defense, as Brendan is doing. That’s far too easy. Lots of possession, lots of huffing and puffing until we get to the blessed final third. And then what? Where was our very expensive/valuable strike force? Half out injured and the other half unable to get it done. We were exactly the same in both games.

    What we can’t do is risk the rest of our season, eight in a row, treble treble, etc. by creating to a crisis that doesn’t exist. 1994 was a crisis. This is a disappointment, a set back for sure. But this will be a fading memory if, come the end of May, if we are celebrating the third of three trophies and getting ready for next year’s assault on the Champions League. Hail hail.

    • Great article, I agree with it all, our fans sometimes forget that it is not a kick about in the local park, but a very expensive operation, and to keep us on top we need the money there as well. Spend it on rubbish will bring us down. We do need a few decent centre halfs, but as you said, where are they coming from??? Defence was slack last night, the whole team looked sluggish for the first 8 to 10 minutes, but overall, apart from their goals, we were the better team. Europa League is maybe where all these wee countries should start, maybe not call it that, but have it on a level playing field. HH

  9. Unfortunately, this question regarding Celtic’s defensive frailties has been going on for a number of years and a few Managers now. Last time we had a really solid defence was under Martin O’Neil.
    Why do we have a defensive coach and what does he actually do? What does Lee Congerton get paid for? The Celtic Board are so predictable. They have adopted this ‘we will go with what we’ve got’ mentality for years when you need to strengthen from a position of strength.
    I would suggest that the Green Brigade need to look out the old banners about the Board used under Ronnie Deila’s reign. They are more interested,as Chris Sutton says, in fancy lights and hotels than improving the team.

  10. While I don’t always think money is answer to problems on the pitch ( better training at defensive set pecies ) I do think Celtic have a need for a first class center back, and a defensive midfielder. I understand Celtic supporters frustrations at the lack of quality signings, specially as the know that there club is not exactly short of funds. And I also think that Celtic need to get someone better equipped at unearthing new talent from further afield, because if Celtic are not going to spend cash on better players, they need to be found by other means, and that’s what’s a really good scouting system comes into it’s own….. Hail ! Hail !

  11. There has to be changes made Now. This type of shite has to be stopped. Commper is a joke.. he knew a good gig that was ripe to be milked when he saw it. He is actually getting paid to do nothing. If he cannot play then get rid of the Mutt along with Boyata. Where are all the teams who were willing to sign him up?? They have seen what type of crazys they would have to deal with.
    If we want to do well in Europe then we need the squad and “Fit” players to do it. How many minutes has Commper actually since he arrived to this cushy billet???
    Time to dump the deadwood and open the purse.
    Lawwell is a money man and nothing else so he should stick to that side of the buisness. HH

  12. Everybody has had their say on here. Still have the tired core of a Double treble team (almost) Still have St Brendan. Still have the Europa leek to look at and lol. But fitba is a strange mistress at the best of times. Most of the last Cl money has been squandered away on one thing or the other. I almost fell asleep last night watching Aek score goals very easy. If anyone has to share the blamed for this latest failure. The buck stopped last night in Athens. Boo hoo hoo, Celtic are oot of the European cup again. Time for evertbody to wise up, go back tae the dragging board and plead for penance.It seem that all other avenues have been exhasted. So pllllleeeaaasssee get your switch cards oot, and spend on a team that we, you, future generations of Hoops fans can be proud of.

  13. What a load of garbage!
    When will some people realize tgat while we are Scotland’s tichest club, we don’t have an endless supply! Do you all forget what happened across the city? Do you forget already how another club no longer exist because of mindless spending?
    Be ause the UEFA system is geared towards the bigger leagues, we do not have a divine right to be in the Champions League! This year was even harder then the previous two! Grow up and get behind this club! It could after all be like the extinct guys and we could be looking for a brand new team to support!

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