Does Celtic’s dire Champions League record stem from systemic problems at Lennoxtown?

Everyone knows by now that some of our Champions League statistics are dreadful, but perhaps the most alarming is our tendency to concede goals in quick succession.

It’s not bad enough that we concede early, immediately undoing whatever game plan we’ve crafted, but we also have this habit of letting in goals in bursts. That was my biggest fear on Tuesday night. After we equalised, we conceded again almost immediately.

I thought, “Here we go again.”

There are two habits we badly need to break: conceding early and then completely collapsing at a certain point in the match. It’s as if our players, so used to winning, fold the moment they realise they’re facing an uphill fight. Constant success can blunt a team’s edge. It can make you vulnerable to being knocked out when you come up against superior opposition.

Under normal circumstances, I’d call this a psychological issue, and I do believe that’s a big part of this and one we have to focus on.

But it’s more than that. It has to be because this pattern has repeated itself under several different managers, with completely different Celtic sides. You cannot find a more different team than the one we have now compared to the one that lost to Barcelona and PSG under Rodgers. Almost all the personnel have changed, yet some underlying constant remains.

It’s as if this team has a tipping point. We go from being confident to becoming paralysed by fear. I don’t understand how or why it happens, but it does, and by the time we recover, the game is already lost. Maybe we need a sports psychologist. Maybe we need better coaching. I do worry that one of the common denominators here is the coaching staff.

Let me clarify: I’m not talking about the manager. We’ve seen this under Ange, under Lennon—it’s not just about one boss or one approach. This issue seems embedded in the club, and it suggests that the problem is internal, rooted in the system itself.

I believe there is a fundamental issue with our coaching setup, and it’s probably contributing to so many of these defeats. I’ve argued for a while now that one of the biggest problems we have as a club is the lack of a continental coaching influence. We are filled to the rafters with ex-Celtic players; this might comfort people. It scares me to death.

We have guys who have been at the club for too long, clinging to the same old ideas. There’s no innovation, no fresh thinking, and this is evident across the boards.

This is a board of directors that hired Lennon twice, Rodgers twice, and Ange Postecoglou only after failing to land another manager. Where is the forward-thinking in any of that? At every level, there is mediocrity. I think we have an elite manager in Brendan Rodgers, and he’s trying to build a strong team, but all around him are individuals who haven’t moved with the times, people who seem to think they have a divine right to be at Celtic Park.

Yesterday, I spoke about the importance of ruthlessness. Too many people get sentimental and play favourites, but only a ruthless approach will take us to the next level. We won’t get there by clinging to people who aren’t capable of performing at a higher capacity. No one really believes that our current coaching setup is top-level, do they?

We’ve known for a long time that it needs a major upgrade.

Top clubs around the world employ specialist coaches. Why don’t we? It’s clear we need a top sports psychology department and fresh ideas on the training ground. We’ve all seen how set pieces don’t produce enough goals, how we’ve failed to improve penalty kicks—these are areas that aren’t being addressed properly by the current coaching staff, and this goes back a long way. A decline like that should be halted by a new manager coming in … it hasn’t been.

It’s time we started looking at this for the answers, because at the moment, it feels like we’re just doing the same things over and over, expecting a different outcome, which is madness.

Rodgers said on Friday that no manager wants to lose. He’s right; no one likes being beaten. But if it’s not the tactics, as he says, then what is it? What exactly is going wrong?

Rodgers is trying to build something here, but I don’t believe the people in charge are helping him in the best way possible. This club is still packed with the Friends of The Man, people retained out of sentiment rather than based on merit.

Lawwell’s comment to Brown, on the day he quit playing for us, that he’d be back someday is a prime example. I’m sorry, but that’s something that anyone at our club should have been making a promise about; that has to be earned, not given away like a plastic trophy.

This is the same reason John Kennedy remains as assistant coach, and why both Gavin Strachan and another Strachan are still on the payroll. These are not the best people for the job by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re here because sentiment and misplaced loyalty guide too many of our decisions, instead of logic and merit.

If the club is serious about finding answers, this is where they should start. We all know what needs to be done. It’s about whether the board is willing to give up a little power and hand it over to someone with a long-term vision and the freedom to see it through.

And that’s what I want to focus on in the next article.

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