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Celtic belongs at the top table. All that talk of us being a “Europa League side” is plain wrong.

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Image for Celtic belongs at the top table. All that talk of us being a “Europa League side” is plain wrong.

For a couple of years now, I’ve been hearing people talk about how they would prefer it if we had a shot at a run in the Europa League, and I’ve been telling them how crazy that is, and it is crazy. It’s always been crazy.

But today, sitting with a place in the last 32 of the Champions League and with a reasonable chance of getting a reasonable draw, and especially if we don’t do anything suicidally stupid like weakening the team prior to the Villa game, I wonder if a run in the Europa League still seems like such a good idea to those people.

Had we drawn the game last night, it would have been a calamity, and it would have been a travesty, considering that we had the ball in the net three times and missed a penalty in the first half. But our prize for drawing a game is more than the Ibrox club will get for winning one. And even if there were no other reason to prefer the top tier to the second tier one, there’s your reason right there.

It’s tremendous. This is where we belong. This is where we should be. And although I don’t believe that we’ll get this lucky again in terms of the draw, this is the stage we want to be on. I understand, I understand that for football reasons, for reasons in terms of getting results and seeing victories, that we would want to be playing against a lesser standard of opposition than the elite super clubs. But as I said before the draw happened, the key thing in this competition is the home games. If you can win your home ties, you are in a good position.

Three home wins and a home draw, excellent. But the two away draws are the real bonus for me. The point at Atalanta looks incredible now, and the point in Zagreb, which a lot of people were disappointed with, now looks equally massive. If we can get something at Villa, that’s even better.

And then let the chips fall where they may.

I’ll take a run in this competition over a run in the lesser tournament any day of the week. There’s nothing better than Celtic Park on a Champions League night, and the money that the club makes from these games cannot be discounted. It is that money, that financial advantage, which gives us on average 20 million pounds more to spend than the Ibrox club every single season, in terms of wages, agent fees and transfer fees, as per UEFA’s financial sustainability rules.

So, this has a very real impact on what happens to us in our domestic league. This has a very real impact on how we perform right here at home.

Obviously, it’s the same for the prestige factor, the types of players who will come and play for us because we’re a Champions League team. Everyone wants to play in this competition, and we offer players a regular opportunity to do that. Sure, every now and again, you get a player who wants to go for the money, wants to go somewhere else and play in a so-called top five league, even if it’s not for a top side. But this is the stage where almost all the best players want to be.

For all I complain, and I do complain, and I admit it, about the number of games that we have to play, now, with this enhancement to European competition, the fact that we’ve had so many Champions League fixtures, eight of them, and now face another two is actually a net positive in terms of our attractiveness.

That’s a quarter of a domestic league season. So even if you can’t convince players to come and play in the Scottish Premier League, you can convince them to come and play ten European ties against top-class opposition.

So, there’s an obvious attraction to this which factors into how strong we are above and beyond just the money. Although the money is nice, and the money is what enables us to go and get those players in the first place.

But there’s also that thing of being talked about across the continent. And it’s big news that we’ve made it out of the group stages, when top-tier sides haven’t and might not.

I mean, you would think that Manchester City have enough about them to mount a rescue operation and get there, but they aren’t the only club below us in the group. You’ve got PSV, Bruges, Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain, Sporting Lisbon, VFB Stuttgart, Bologna, Girona. Our 12 points is the same as that of Juventus, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Borussia Dortmund.

And that’s what the Champions League is all about, and that’s what our participation is all about, and that’s why last night was such a big deal for this club.

It’s also why I smart at the idea that the job is done. The job is not done. We can still finish higher than those teams. We can still finish higher than a lot of them, and we should be aiming to do exactly that. We should be going to Villa with a full-strength squad, minus our friend Maeda, of course, who is banned, and we should be looking to win that game.

This is our stage. This is where we belong, and I understand all that well-meaning talk that we might be better off for a couple of seasons playing in the Europa, but I disagree with it wholeheartedly, and I always have. This is the only place to be.

Photo by Ross Parker/SNS Group via Getty Images

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4 comments

  • terry the tim says:

    We are a big team in a small league and are fighting above our weight in Europe.
    I hope we perform well in next weeks game at Villa but in terms of players transfer values we are way below theirs.
    Looking forward to at least two extra games after the Villa match.
    I think the new qualification format and subsequent draw has been great for us.

  • Gerry says:

    Well said James …of course we belong at the top table and the only way we continue to be there, is if the club continues to progress, improve and evolve, as we have seen this season.

    Regardless of those that want to nit pick about last night’s win, the most important part, and ALL that matters, was to win and get the three points.

    The manager and squad have done their bit, to get us to this important part of the season and in such a healthy way. You could tell a few of our players were running on empty in the latter stages, but they dug out a result .

    It’s now up to our board, to ensure there’s no sleeping at the wheel or further narcolepsy during this window !
    It is imperative that we come out of January in a healthier state, with new recruits, and a positive outlook, as we fight it out on numerous fronts.

    Over to you board…how often have we said that?? HH

  • KirkieBhoy73 says:

    Well looks like Kyogo is away

  • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

    The Europa League generally means finishing second in The SPFL premier league…

    Who in their right fuckin mind wants that scenario !

    Cos ya know it’d then be a 12 year and 178 day old club that’d be Champions…

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