Does a Celtic Euro embarrassment still count as news?
No matter the players, away days blues don’t seem far away
Taking a 2-0 lead to an away tie in Europe is no guarantee of making progress but it should install a bit of confidence in the team. When it comes to Celtic, even though the squad has been greatly transformed, the same old failings always seem to be there.
An inability to pass the ball and retain possession is matched by an insane streak that runs through the defence whenever they are placed under the minimum of pressure. It isn’t rocket science to know that a cautious approach and keeping a clean sheet for at least 20 minutes is the key to success away from home in Europe.
Sure, Celtic hauled back a 3-0 deficit in Vienna last season but results like these are few and far between. If you give away cheap goals, you are likely to be punished more often than not.
We haven’t seen too many replays of the penalties but our first impression was the first was clumsy and unnecessary from Jos Hooiveld with the second one seeing Zaluska win the ball. It’s then up to the ref to decide if the forward momentum is a natural movement or a foul.
Both times, the ref decided in favour of the home time and both times Lukas Zaluska got a hand to the ball but was ineffective in keeping the ball out of the net. Less than twenty minutes gone and the tie already levelled. The ref was a strange one though, clearly headbutting an opponent is only worthy of a yellow card but lets not let the poor refereeing performance take away from how abysmal Celtic were.
The fact that an away goal at this stage would have put Celtic firmly back into the driving seat should have given the team some confidence but it was completely lacking. From the team, only James Forrest could take any semblance of respect from their performance and some players really should have been involved in their last Celtic game.
Whether there is time and money for Neil Lennon to ship these imposters out and bring replacements in remains to be seen but much like Ross County and Braga, when Celtic needed performances, the big names went hiding.
Samaras and Fortune have started the season with performances which have convinced some fans to maybe give them another chance but yet again, when it matters, these players went missing.
After the Ross County debacle, Neil Lennon cast doubt over the long term future on these players and tonight, the Irishman may be regretting his decision to keep these players at Celtic.
So, half-time and 2-0 down saw Celtic still very much in the hunt. The second half saw Celtic attack with intent and had the ball in the opposition box.
Of course, possession was very quickly squandered and in one flowing move found themselves 3-0 down and behind in the tie. Even at this stage, a goal would have brought them back into it but it never looked even remotely possible.
A fourth for Utrecht sealed Celtic’s anguish and left Neil Lennon pondering what state his club is in for the season ahead.
Celtic fans can only sit and ponder where it all went wrong and how far back the malaise can be traced to. Ever since exiting the Champions League to Barcelona two years ago, it has been downhill for Celtic.
A league title was secured against the odds but this should have been viewed as a wake-up call. As it was, it was the only large highlight of a torrid time for Celtic fans.
The board, managers and players can all be blamed to varying degrees for the current status of the club and you wonder if this is the lowest point or is there further depths for Celtic to plumb?
Fans of every other club in Scotland will laugh long and hard throughout the night, week, month and season.
Celtic fans, where to now?
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backing the celtic, eh, finding it too hard to tell the truth and criticise, we are a shambles, take your green specs off, we are a shambles, full of talk, full of over paid imposters and a man as manager who should not be any where near our club, hes a joke
i am embarrassed and so angry
reid, liewell, lennon, broon, and every defender must go! words cannot tell how angry i am, i wont be back to watch that rubbish, in fact i will be up at the ground tmrw for a refund on my season ticket,. sickened, what a waste fo money, time and effort
i await my fellow hoops defending the indefensible and criticising me for telling the truth, we all know our club does not like the truth!
time to bring back martin, bin lennon and sack peter lawwell the spin master!
when are we signing given, campbell, bullard, keane, bellamy, weiss and heskey? effin joke, all talk no action, ickey mouse transfer action, weve just wasted over 10m and brought in a measly 6m for aiden mcgeady, it wasnt 10m and lennon wont get it all to spend, it was 6 PLUS his wages for the duration of the contract
im sick
So who will be Celtic manager at the start of next season after Lennon is sacked, the way the board are going it will be James Forrest, even less experienced than Lennon
Celtic have an awful away record in Europe but I honestly thought they could have progressed tonight, to lose and lose so heavily, really must be alarming for the fans. That’s three big games Lennon has had since becoming manager and has failed badly in all three, Ross County, Braga and now Utrecht. The loss of income to the prized Celtic balance sheet will be considerable, as you mentioned in another article, the prize money maybe significantly less than that of the Champions League, but three homes games with a decent gate will see more income drifting away from Parkhead.
The optimists will now look to domestic success as way of overcoming the latest European failure, but many of the new signings were looking for European football as we all know the SPL is not the most glamourest of leagues is it? Can any of the Celtic lads tell me how many there is currently in the first team squad? Seem’s to me that there are a fair few that need punted to reduce the wage bill after this blow for them.
The bigger picture is of course the Co-efficient in Scotland, we now only have Rangers left in European competition before the end of August, simply not good enough and could have further ramifications for future qualification. More and more money is being lost and we are falling further and further behind.
I said a few weeks ago that Lennon should go and was shot down in flames,he really is clueless when it comes to setting up at team.
What on earth was Fortune doing out wide right, etc etc etc?
That was utter humiliation, he is not ready for a job of that magnitude. Let’s beg craig Brown to come before it’s to late, we need to settle the team down and stop being blinded by all this Celtic minded, club at heart pish. We need an expreienced man at the helm.
We are in big trouble, he needs to go now!
There is cause for great disappointment but not despair. Our failure at this stage of the season was always a real possibility but the performance tonight was appalling. A new Manager and team coming together early in the season is probably an excuse offered by some but the ineptitude of the performance was unacceptable. My real concern tonight is the psychological blow to the team and support aswell as the boost it will give to our rivals. In my opinion the decision by the Manager at half-time at Celtic Park to settle for 2-0 was the crux of our failure. Utrecht smelled the fear then and it showed in their performance in the second half . Neil will have learned a lesson from that and I trust he will learn quickly.
how long is this merry go round going to go on its time we stopped blaming and started fixing this great football name has been dragged through the mud for far too long now someone out there should be big enough to stand up and say “im going to make celtic great again” i do still believe and i shall keepbelieving cause i know this club are too good to sink without a trace so come on lets get in about the league etc
HAIL HAIL LETS BRING BACK THE THUNDER
Lennon’s all talk – happy to come out in the media and give us soundbytes to get excited over, but he’s failed to produce. He’s known since day one when mowbray was sacked that we needed a left back, centre half and striker. Made out like he’d noted after the Ross county game who wasn’t good enough to play for the club…boruc and mcgeady?
Zaluska is awful, Ledley is not a left back, Cha looks permanently confused, brown is somehow still getting a game and samaras is so bad it’s hard to describe or know where to start.
As someone else said, where’re Given; Campbell; James; Keane; Bellamy; Bullard – all people that Lennon told us were close to signing, all told him no.
Last night was worse than Bratislava.
And even Mowbray did better than Lennon has so far!
Lennon WILL eventually get sacked. The frustrating thing is that we’ll compete in the spl, maybe win it, and he’ll stay in the job for maybe another season.
The board need to leave when he does.
Liam,
What do you find so frustrating about the fact that Lenny will probably win the SPL? Do you see that as a bad thing?
I disagreed with the appointment of Lenny since day one but I will gladly clear all of the supplies from the humble pie shop if he proves me wrong and hoists the league trophy high.
That’s some crazy Fuzzy Logic from you. (I know the Eds will appreciate the wee music reference there!)
Silly Billy, what makes you so sure that Celtic can win the SPL with an inferior team than last year?
Is Agent Mowbray still on the payroll?
PS ……….. hehehehehehehe
29 matches, 4 managers, 75 players and only ONE victory!
Quagz,
If you could read properly you might be slightly useful in a discussion. I NEVER said I was confident we would win the league, I simply asked Liam why he thought Lenny winning the league and staying on as Celtic manager was a bad thing. Do try and keep up!
I disagree about having a weaker squad than last season. The time for judging that is not now. Couldn’t be any feckin’ worse could it?
Spot on BSIJ, the Super Furry Animals are the only SFA we trust!
Mind you, that’s only because we’ve got Ice Hockey Hair.
‘At Least It’s Not The End Of The World’ if we resort to ‘Guerilla’ tactics. (I promise to stop the SFA puns now)