Tonight we’ve seen the published details of Celtic’s European squad, and there were one or two surprises in it. To put it mildly.
He has left out the left-back we signed from Chelsea, Landon Emenalo, which is astonishing considering we have spent the whole summer talking about how this club needs to have two left-backs for Europe.
That is where your players are going to get tested the most. It is where they are going to be drained of energy the most. Yet our alternatives now are Liam Scales and Jordan Lotomba, who we signed as a right-back. Emenalo, Shim Mheuka and Joël van den Berg are the three summer signings omitted from the Europa League squad.
Playing Scales there, of course, means that nothing, literally nothing, can go wrong with central defence over the course of the European campaign. Because if we lose even one player, Dane Murray gets games in the competition whether he is ready for them or not. If we have suspensions at centre-back, we are in trouble.
So, this is a decision of almost incomprehensible stupidity. Another self-inflicted wound. Another major risk taken which did not have to be taken, and one where you do not have to be a genius to see that we are going to suffer.
We have left out the young striker from Chelsea. That is not a surprise.
Yet we have left out Van den Berg, the £3.4 million signing from PSV, who does not get into the European squad either. A decision which is questionable at best.
And, of course, Jota is not going to be able to play any role in this European campaign at this stage either, which says plenty about the decision not to sign a left-sided attacking player. That is how much confidence we apparently have in Jota being fit and ready to contribute meaningfully in Europe.
We have all said that this club does not take Europe seriously. We have all said that this club does not believe it has to worry properly about European football at all. It does not prioritise for it. It does not properly attempt to push the boat out to succeed in it.
Yet, as I said earlier, it does make European qualification for the top table one of the foundations around which we build the so-called transfer-trading strategy.
The fact that we went out of that competition and then immediately ditched much of the summer signing policy is phenomenal, especially when Europe itself apparently is not regarded as the big deal some of us thought it was.
Under normal circumstances, that would sound like something I had simply made up off the top of my head. I do not do that. I have never done that.
I am taking it from the words of the manager himself.
When O’Neill discussed the European registration tonight, he put it in plain, undeniable and unmistakable English. He said there were “very tough decisions” involved in putting the Europa League squad together, before making the central point clear: “for me, the most important thing is our domestic football.” He added that although Celtic wants to do as well as possible in the Europa League, the players who have been signed are expected first to “make a mark initially in the domestic scene.”
There it is. I have said before that those Europa League matches deserve to be played in front of empty stands. The board has not prepared us even close to adequately for those games, and it is now abundantly clear.
No defensive midfielder, which I will cover in great detail in another piece later tonight. Now no specialist left-back signed for the competition either. One of our midfielders, the only one who cost us significant money in the last couple of days, is not included in the squad.
Three of the six players we brought in during that final rush have been left out.
And now you have it from the horse’s mouth. You have it from the main man, the manager himself. Domestic priorities come first.
It is the same parochial, small thinking we have always accused this club of having. Stay one step ahead of Ibrox. That is all that matters.
It is especially galling in a window where, in spite of their relative poverty compared with us, and in spite of not even being in European league-stage football, the Ibrox club has still been prepared to spend heavily. They have something called net spend.
They are also prioritising domestically. But then, they have no choice.
If you wanted a better advert for Europa League tickets, and for the way Celtic views that competition and the Champions League above it, you could not hope for a better one than the manager has just provided.
It is not the priority. This club does not take it seriously enough. This club plans to participate in Europe, but it does not build with the intention of doing serious work there because Europe remains a secondary consideration.
With the manager’s words having now been spoken so clearly, I do not have to elaborate much further. The point is already clear. The guy in charge of the football department appears to agree with the guys in the boardroom.
They want fans to spend money on those games.
But those games are not considered a primary concern. The competition is not considered a primary concern. Whatever happens to us in those matches, reputationally or otherwise, clearly sits behind domestic football in the hierarchy. That it affects sponsorship, prize money, TV cash which actually matters and the all-important co-efficient points appears to be of almost no concern to these people at all.
It is why Martin O’Neill could stand in front of the media last night and joke about this stuff, laughing just seven days after a disgusting European reversal in which he played large part, and which cost Celtic a significant amount of money.
They do not care about those European ties.
So, my question is this: why the hell should we?
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Of course Domestic football is the priority, it’s always been the priority. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to progress in Europe. But being realistic, our chances of winning a trophy in Europe are slim. Only one team not from the top 5 Leagues has won the Champions League in the past 31 years and that was the decent Porto team, who won it the season after beating us 3-2 in extra time, at the then UEFA cup final in 2003.
The Europa League/Uefa Cup has only been won by a team from England/Germany/Spain/Italy since 2011.
The Conference League started in 2021and has has been won three times by English clubs,one Italian and one Greek. That maybe would be within our reach, I’ll repeat, Maybe?
We’re all a bit pissed off with our Board and their failure not to get tooled up in time for these CL play off games. But this nit picking of the manager for stating the obvious that Domestic football is the priority, is just over reaction.
The first time Celtic don’t win the League let’s see the reaction, and then tell me that Domestic Titles aren’t the priority. That doesn’t mean Europe isn’t important,
I remember when Celtic were amongst Europes elite. A club with ambition, whatever happened
You know what happened BB, everyone one knows what happened. UEFA decided only the top Leagues mattered and the financial rewards accorded to them left every one else picking up the crumbs.
Celtic were in the European elite for around 7 years,1967/74, as the Lisbon Lions got older, the then Celtic Board decided to sell most of the quality street young players, Macari, Hay, Dalglish amongst others, and replaced them with dross. Within 5 years we weren’t in the top 50 in Europe. This was before Bosman and massive tv contracts for the more populated countries, so there were no excuses for that Board, But Celtic have nearly always been a selling club throughout their history and have used their supporters as cash cows.
I’ve supported Celtic for over 75 years and in all that time the only Chief Executive or Chairman of Celtic who’s been upfront with the support has been McCann.
Fair comments micmac. One thing, all serious clubs put out weakened teams in the domestic cups. We dont because we are not serious in europe and probably never have been in modern times.
James I would like to remind you last season you were saying we should put out a 2nd team v Stuttgart because the league and scottish cup were priorities. I get that emotion but totally disagree and remember MON put out a team to try and win both games.
I agree with Martin, if that is what he said, domestic football does come first and foremost. Without success on the home front, there is no Europe. European success is a bonus, a very welcome one, and European nights at Celtic Park are awesome. However, I would be delighted this season to win the league, and either, or both of the cups…..Europe will take care of itself.
By the way James, you are condemning the omission of Van Den Berg from the European squad despite scoffing at him in a previous article as being a ‘B’ team player purchase. I wish you would make up your mind.
Our city rivals have been to two European finals since our last one so I heartily agree that we need to be more ambitious in that regard even if it was the lesser of the three but why we have suddenly become a development club for EPL clubs is beyond me. Also, I don’t see what impact three unproven teenagers could be expected to have in Europe in any case. These aren’t Mbappe, Messi, Ronaldo types otherwise they’d be nowhere near Scottish football.
If those incompetent, freeloading, sabotaging feckers on the PLC board had any sense, their priority should be CL qualification every season, via the champions path. Then the club would have the resources to sign better quality players, and domestic success will take care of itself. Make the PLC members immoral bonuses based on CL qualification.
Hail Hail.
James, I think I have just found the dummy you spat out! What MON said was that players need to make a mark initially in domestic games. That makes perfect sense as if the players haven’t proven themselves to the manager, the coaches and their fellow players in domestic games, why on earth would you trust them in Europe?
As has been noted you castigated the pursuit of Berg only a couple or so days ago and now you are castigating MON for not including him in the EL squad. Dearie me. And yes of course if all our left sided defenders get struck by lightning then we will be in trouble – if MON thinks that an experienced international right back offers more to the squad than an inexperienced 18 year old then that’s good enough for me.
I just looked at the EL squad and there’s cover for every position on the pitch.
Players should be versatile. Arteta was a big fan of Tierney but bought the Ukrainian guy because of KTs injury issues. When he got injured he played the Japanese right back as left back instead of Tierney…still KT was a big part of Artetas Arsenal and that FA cup win gave him breathing space at the time when some were calling for a change of manager.
Arteta can move Players about and plays 2nd string players in the domestic cups early rounds…its called prioritising ….something we wont accept at Celtic.
I’ve been too busy working etc so wasn’t aware of these comments by MON.
So thanks for this article and there we have it !
DDs ambitionless model now publicly endorsed by MON for all to see in words and deeds.
So nothing has changed at all and we are back where we were at the start of the crisis bar the backstabbing of the manager who had ambition we’ve replaced him with one who has no ambition.
Excellent analysis JF and it’s NAP from me from now on, no match tickets, no European matches, no merch …zero.
A massive European club like Celtic held back by an ambitionless penny pincher.
I’m not giving money to fund that no way.
I hope every Celtic fan reads this James
This board…..and now the manager, are asking us to cough up hard earned money, for a competition they don’t care about.
Celtic fans, FFS, read the room
Well said Portojoe although it’s a bit more than just spitting the dummy think he’s “jumped the shark” on this one
FFS if a guy who probably hasn’t kicked a ball in earnest in his life can see the EL squad is all wrong why can’t a man who has spent his life at the top level in football with 2 European Cup winners medals and guided Celtic to Seville see the obvious errors of the squad selection?
Is the increasing criticism of MON to do with his management of the team or his association with Desmond?
What Martin said about domestic football makes perfect sense
If Celtic and it’s a big if make it to the final of the EL or even go deep into the tournament guaranteed the boycotters will be scrambling for tickets