Celtic's hopes of reaching the Champions League were shattered in spectacular fashion in Austria on Tuesday night, as the club crashed out of the Europa League after a humiliating defeat to LASK. The Hoops were seconds away from qualification, but now face a stark new reality.
A night of chaos and collapse
The Parkhead club should have been opening the curtains to survey sunny uplands. Instead, they peeled back the duvet to the trashed hotel room scene from the old Hangover movie, complete with bust-up bodies lying face down all over the shop and a tiger wandering around the bathroom.
The ramifications will be huge. The entire club has been shifted to an alternate timeline. In the previous one, Celtic were in among the big boys and banking another £40m to stick on top of the pile of money already gathering dust in Scrooge McDuck's Kerrydale Street vault.
Three qualifiers loom large
That version of reality is now gone. The current path is far less certain. Scotland's champions will face THREE qualifiers from next season on. Celtic would have to win the league first of all, but should they claim the title, what hope would they have negotiating three ties when they can barely cope with one against a club with half their turnover and wage bill.
Parkhead chiefs plead poverty when it comes to competing at the very top level, but none of the eight teams who have sent them packing in these qualifiers in their last 10 attempts can match their financial firepower. Not LASK, not Kairat, Ferencvaros didn't come close, nor did Cluj or Midtjylland, certainly not Maribor or Malmo, while only AEK Athens were on a more level playing field.
Players and coaches under fire
Celtic had enough to deal with LASK. They spent almost £30m going in, and they were let down by the outbreak of self-inflicted calamity in Austria. No one gets away unscathed. There were individual errors and collective disorganisation. The players on the park have to carry the can – as do Martin O'Neill and the coaching department.
Celtic's brand of chaosball paid off for them domestically last season and in the early days of this one on the home front. But it's one thing allowing the likes of Kilmarnock to create chances and Dundee United to hit the woodwork five times. It's another to allow LASK a mind-blowing 60 attempts on goal over two matches.
Deep-rooted problems exposed
The 3-0 first leg win was camouflage. Celtic were utterly walloped over both these games. Shamefully so. LASK have built a tidy side with a fraction of the dosh, but they could also be on the end of some sore ones in the coming weeks. Which will only add to the Celtic sense of embarrassment.
It should be felt further up the chain at the club as well. Because although the side malfunctioned on the pitch, failing in six qualifying cracks in a row is damning evidence of more deep-rooted problems. They might have stumped up serious cash this summer but Celtic still went into this tie badly prepared. Again.
O'Neill said he wanted quality over quantity. He needed both. And he needed it a lot quicker than this. He needed to be able to have a £9m winger on the pitch rather than short of fitness stuck on the bench. He needed reinforcements in midfield after selling the only player in there with a bit of muscle. He needed cover for players who can't be faulted for effort or talent, but questions can be asked about their ability to last 90 minutes.
Celtic finished the tie the other night with three or four players who are honest pros and good lads, but who are short of the level required to cope with the flaming bin fire that was unfolding out there. Yes, there was money spent this summer, but the Hoops went into this clash having made a PROFIT in the previous weeks – on top of the £70m plus in the bank.
Fans are right to wonder what use there is in having cash in reserve when the team is lacking where it matters. It's become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The suits warned at that wild AGM last year that the money was needed because the European outlook was uncertain and the Europa League and Conference might be a more realistic pathway in the coming years. Rather than resist that route, they've willingly marched right up it.
In the last two seasons they'd torched a potential £80m in income that could have led to the more glamorous road. Celtic built up a rainy day fund only to turn the hose on themselves while the sun was out. Now the dark clouds really are rolling in. They still might – and probably will – be too strong for the rest in Scotland. But the European outlook has never looked bleaker and the hangover could last for years.
