The last European tie of Celtic’s season should not feel like this.

These are probably the lowest expectations under which any Celtic fan has approached a European tie for a very long time. It is difficult to find supporters who genuinely care what happens tonight. The mood, for most of us, is that the tie already feels over.

This is 90 minutes that will not decide anything.

It will not change the outcome of the season. It will not alter the bigger picture. When you look at it that way, it is actually quite shocking.

European football should be our benchmark. It should be the measure by which we judge progress. The fact that so many of us are willing to mentally surrender this tie, and perhaps this entire European campaign, is an indictment of where we are right now.

That is the most uncomfortable part of the current situation. We have reached a point where Europe feels like a luxury we cannot afford. A distraction. An indulgence. In short, what some on the board have treated it like for two decades.

It is easy to describe the mood as apathy, and there is certainly some of that around this game. But apathy is only part of the story. Beneath it sits something else. There is anger at how our ambitions, our expectations and our belief in European progress have been steadily eroded by a poor domestic campaign.

The first leg gave us clarity, if nothing else. For those who had convinced themselves that a run in the Europa League might provide a lift or a platform, the reality was harsh. We are not ready for that level right now. The team is short of depth. We look exposed, like a team already stretched to its limits.

The fact that there is still a second leg to play only raises the possibility that the lesson could become even more painful.

All the focus now is on the weekend. The manager’s team selection tonight will tell us exactly where this fixture sits on his list of priorities. One would imagine that by now it sits very low.

It is difficult not to feel sympathy for Martin. By any normal logic, his story should have ended on a high, with the night in Rotterdam providing a fitting European farewell. Instead, circumstances brought him back, and we are all grateful that he did return. Without him, the situation might be far worse.

Still, it is uncomfortable to see him in this position, with his European finale at Celtic now this, in what feels like a flat and dispiriting conclusion.

The uncertainty around everything only deepens the mood. None of us knows what level of European competition we will be playing in next season. None of us knows who will be managing the team. We don’t have the first clue what the squad will look like.

It is tempting to say things can only improve from here.

Supporters always reach for that hope. But recent experience should make us cautious. Not long ago, after the performance in Munich, there was genuine optimism about the direction of travel. Progress is never guaranteed.

That uncertainty hangs over everything. The final European game of the season should carry tension, excitement and a sense of possibility. Instead, it feels flat. It feels like something we have to get through rather than something we are looking forward to.

Everything feels temporary at the moment. Everything feels as if it is on hold. That is why this game feels the way it does. We know where the real battles now lie. We know which matches will define the season.

Tonight feels like a distraction from those priorities. Possibly even a dangerous one. The last thing we need is injuries or players running themselves into the ground in a tie that cannot realistically be turned around.

So whatever happens, happens. The only thing that really matters is that there are no consequences for the weekend.

Once this is over, once the European campaign is finally done, the focus becomes total. No more midweek fixtures. No more divided priorities or distractions.

Perhaps then we will see a Celtic side capable of putting together the kind of run required to win the title. That is all we can realistically hope for now.

That is the objective. Because that is the season, a narrow window in which failure is not an option, not if this club is to avoid even greater turmoil. Right now, as sad as this is to write, as tragic as we’ve become, Stuttgart in the Europa League is simply standing in the way.