Flat-track bullies Celtic continue descent into European irrelevance

Callum Osmand of Celtic goes down under a Celta Vigo challenge

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Callum Osmand and Celtic had a frustrating night in Glasgow

ByTom EnglishBBC Scotland's chief sports writer

Published33 minutes ago

When Mika Baur scored early in the second half against Celta Vigo, so much in Celtic's garden was rosy.

The team had an intensity now that they didn't have before. They had momentum. Belief. They had a Liam Scales header hopping off the top of the crossbar. The La Liga visitors were under the pump.

It was easy to conclude in those naively optimistic moments that Celta Vigo were all passing and no penetration. They passed it to death and got pretty much nowhere.

More than 350 passes in the opening half and one attempt on target. All very pretty. All very technical. All very tippy-tappy.

The question that Celtic fans will be asking now, some with pitchforks in hand, is what the hell happened in the last half-an-hour of this game. Particularly, what happened from minutes 68 to 71.

From three points to no points. From building on the hiding dished out to Hearts to another loss and getting shunted back to bitterness and rancour.

Celtic stopped playing and stopped believing. They were hit with a bit of adversity and they were bowled over by it. Knocked to the ground, never to rise up again.

They'll complain - as they already have - about a foul on Camilo Duran that wasn't picked up just before the equaliser, but there is no talking to the errors they made thereafter.

The inability to deal with a free-kick, the failure to pick up the goalscorer in the first instance and then multiple calamities in the concession of the second goal. How many chances does one side need to get a ball away to safety?

Long before the end, Celtic were gone. Psychologically spent. This is nothing new. Something new would have been the sight of them kicking on at 1-0, but in Europe such strength is a dying art form in this team.

A third straight loss in Europe, 35th out of 36 teams in the Europa League table, only a side from Armenia keeping them off rock bottom. This is their place in the grand scheme now.

Domestic football proves lousy barometer

Chris Sutton calls them flat-track bullies. How many Celtic fans would disagree with that depiction? Not many.

Thursday was yet another example of domestic football being a lousy barometer of Celtic's capacity to win - or even draw - games in Europe.

In the wake of the 7-1 trouncing of Hearts, some Celtic folk with desperately short memories rounded on a few commentators who were critical of Martin O'Neill, his players and this Celtic board following their losses to Rangers and their failures against LASK, Ferencvaros and Benfica.

As if beating up Hearts made it all better. The message, after the goal deluge, was 'what are you saying to it now?' The answer: Exactly as we were saying before.

O'Neill said on Thursday that there are still loads of points to play for - and there are. But it was a claim made from a position of serious weakness. Desperation, almost.

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"A bit of adversity and the lights go out"

Even at their best in recent decades, Celtic have struggled awfully to win European games on the road. Right now, that looks way beyond them. Winning at home is too much for them these days, too.

So, yes, there are enough points on offer for Celtic to fight their way out of their Europa League dungeon and into the play-off, but in their current state it's more a philosophical thought than an attainable reality.

If you have lost three out of three, have scored three goals and have conceded nine, then banging on about points you might win down the line is an exercise in wishful thinking.

In the here and now, Celtic's standards are plummeting. That's on everybody.

It's on O'Neill and his players, though it's easy to have some sympathy for the manager when he not only has to field questions about the stuff he's responsible for but also come up with answers about stuff that he has no responsibility for - the ongoing circus that is Celtic's relationship with large elements of their own support.

And the blame is also, in greater part, on a board who are happy to have O'Neill and - when he's not around - Shaun Maloney, talking about the disconnect between fans and club, as was the case on Wednesday.

No chief executive, no chairman, no major shareholder and no major shareholder's son are anywhere to be seen when those issues are raised at news conferences. Just a manager or an assistant who, let's face it, have a few other things on their mind.

Do Celtic have vision to make it better?

Just after the television coverage ended on Thursday there was a programme of highlights of big Celtic Park Champions League nights. Remember them?

Celtic beating the Manchester United of Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney; Celtic beating the AC Milan of Alessandro Nesta, Andrea Pirlo, Clarence Seedorf and Kaka; Celtic beating the Barcelona of Jordi Alba, Xavi, Iniesta and Lionel Messi.

A stadium literally shaking to its very foundations. Packed solid. Deafening. Unforgettable.

Look at it now. Empty seats and people leaving early. A game against the eighth best team in Spain, in a second-tier European competition - defeat and apathy. How they have fallen.

Of course, it might seem a little tiresome looking back at how things were 20 years ago, so let's not. Let's look at how things were in February last year.

Bayern Munich versus Celtic. Ninety-three minutes gone in the second leg in Germany and it's 2-2 on aggregate.

Bayern have started with a front four of Michael Olise, Jamal Musiala, Serge Gnabry and Harry Kane. Thomas Muller has replaced Musiala, Leroy Sane has come on for Gnabry, Kingsley Coman for Kane.

It took Bayern until the fourth minute of added time to see Celtic off. From there to here is some descent into European mediocrity and irrelevance.

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'We have what we have' - O'Neill speaks after Celta Vigo collapse

O'Neill said that he "can't ask anything more" from his players. He can - and he must.

More must be asked of O'Neill and more - much, much more - must be asked of the board. Bringing in new players and a new manager is easily done, if they so wish. Whether it's the right players and the right manager is a different story, but it can be done in a heartbeat.

Changing a board, and a way of thinking, is a whole lot harder. There's little doubt all of these people want success for Celtic. They might get more of it domestically. They might win another league, another cup, maybe two. That is all highly possible, if not probable.

This question has been asked so many times now - and it's grim that it still has to be asked. What do Celtic stand for? Flat-track bullydom or something more, something more adventurous, something in keeping with the 'great European story' they so often talk about.

Because of the Lisbon Lions it is and always will be the greatest of all Scottish football stories. Nothing is ever likely to surpass it.

But there are other stories, in the present day, that are tiresome for Celtic folk, stories that are playing out now, almost on a loop. From Champions League to Europa League. What's next? Conference League. And after that?

Everyone in power at the club cannot look at that 36-team table and not feel an enormous sense of embarrassment. If they don't, they're really not in the right job.

The question is - do they have any kind of vision to make it better? Many observers of the club might see that as a rhetorical question.

'Celtic are just not good enough at this level'

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