Celtic’s European Adventure To Come Is A Like Dark Road Through A Haunted Forest.

Celtic takes its first ever step down a new road tomorrow.

We will play our first game in the Europa Conference League.

We know where the path leads; to Albania, of all place, where the President will surely roll out the red carpet for his favourite football team … but the road to get there is far more perilous and dangerous than it initially seems.

Think of Tirana and that final as a castle, looming on the horizon. To get there all we need to do is navigate a dense forest. If you could somehow levitate you could be standing outside the massive gates to that castle in just short of an hour. But the road through the forest has so many twists and turns that it’s going to take at least a day.

There is a pot of gold at the end of this adventure of course, but a modest one, and at some point during our trudge through those woods we are going to stop and consider whether the reward is worth the blood and treasure we need to expend if we’re going to get there.

Even the first step on that path is more treacherous than it seems … Bodo are no mugs, as Roma have already found out to their enormous and embarrassing cost.

Could we do it? Sure we could, if we threw everything at it. But even at a modest estimate, we’re ten games from that final. Where would we fit ten games into this schedule, and what would we have to sacrifice in order to do it?

Forget help from the governing bodies; that won’t be forthcoming. There will be no extension to the season for us, just a shrug and an expression of regret, the reward we get for being too good for our own good. For being capable of challenging on all fronts.

Every step of the way there will be danger. We’ll snag our arms on thorns. We’ll trip over roots growing right out of the road. Enemies will attack us from all sides. Even at our very best, we’re going to lose blood, we’re going to take wounds, we’re going to be done damage and every ounce of our strength will be needed just to navigate the journey.

It’s not inconceivable that this road leads to ruin. We might even get to the gates of the castle itself, only to find out that whilst we’ve been fighting our way through the thickets that the rest of our world has been burned to the ground. Is a Europa Conference League final place worth it if it’s the only prize – not even the trophy itself?

Where do we start to prioritise? And what should our priorities be?

Well, we know that there’s an even greater promised land in front of us for securing the title here at home. The glittering prizes of the Champions League final may not be something we can realistically hope to get to, but those roads are paved with gold all along the way and for every step we can stay on them we will do well for ourselves.

There is a certain attraction to betting big on our ability to go the distance this season, and I understand it just fine. But the risks are momentous, and we have to calculate whether they are worth the reward.

Would it be nice to have our name be the first on that trophy? Hell yes, of course it would. But are the odds in our favour, and what if we make it just to see Ibrox get that Champions League pot of gold instead of us? Still worth it?

These are the considerations we have to make, as we take our first bold steps onto this path. We know where it leads, and we’re pretty confident we can go the distance and not without good reason.

But those aren’t the only considerations.

Cold pragmatism might have to win out at some stage here, and so we have big decisions to make.