Respected journalist Stephen McGowan believes the Celtic board and the recruitment team are to blame for Celtic’s poor run in the Champions League.
It was a surprise to us all when Brendan Rodgers decided to return to a place where he had enjoyed tremendous domestic success but fell well short in Europe. Rodgers was coming into a hostile environment after the manner of his previous Celtic exit.
The Irishman’s return had pundits and supporters believing he had been given certain assurances about budgets and recruitment, believing there was no way he was just back to just enjoy domestic success.
The transfer window which followed seemed bizarre and frustrating. Young players coming in, with Rodgers blessing but not a whole lot of ambition to really kickstart this second Brendan Rodgers era.
Writing in his MailSport column, McGowan said:
“Rodgers returned to Glasgow in the summer with ambitions to restore the club to a competitive state on that stage. Thanks to Celtic’s transfer model, he’s being asked to do it with one hand tied behind his back.
“This summer’s new signings generally followed the same prototype. Aged between 18 and 23, they had all received international recognition at some level. They were prepared to accept a salary in the ballpark of £10- £16k a week. And their transfer fees came in below £5million.
“In Scotland, that policy is enough to deliver trophies and titles. In the killing fields of the Champions League, it’s not fit for purpose.
“It’s not just giants like Paris Saint-Germain, Lazio, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid inflicting the pain. In the last decade, Celtic have lost ties in UEFA competitions to Maribor, Malmo, AEK Athens, Cluj, Copenhagen, Ferencvaros, Midtjylland and Bodo-Glimt.
“No one pretends that the Champions League is the same as a game of Championship Manager. The sooner the state-run clubs of Europe clear off to their own Super League the better. The financial gulf is now enormous.
“Owned by Saudi Arabia, Newcastle United splurged £158m on new signings in the summer. And they’re bottom of their group.”
Celtic did not put their best foot forward when it came to recruitment this summer, that’s easy to see. Can we give them the benefit of the doubt seeing as the first half of this year, they were going into the summer window with expectations Ange Postecgolou would be the manager?
Can we give them the benefit of the doubt after they had to recalibrate very quickly after Ange’s exit?
Rodgers left Celtic last time because he believed he could not take them any further. He has a belief he can do something in Europe with the club, but a lot of pieces have to fall into place and more to the point, the board needs to realise that sometimes we have to go out and pay for a decent standard of player who isn’t a work in progress to help the players who are learning their craft.
