I'll comment more on this later, chaps. Needless to say though that I wasn't biting my nails Robin, as I *knew*, the way the game was going that we would go out. As I said last week, the 1-1 draw was a decent result, given the state and paucity of players in our squad, so I had little confidence that we'd win in Denmark, so no surprises there. I'd pretty much written off progress to the CL this season. You'd need to have been blind to have believed otherwise.
The only positive is that despite the team being shite, we still created more than enough chances to have won that game last night and the tie overall, but defensively we were an utter shambles. Good job we didn't win, and only delayed the inevitable, as PSV Eindhoven would've murdered us in the next round!!
This is about the fourth season in a row now where we've been forced to go into CL qualifiers with a makeshift defence, and worse now this season with a bunch of kids, and you simply cannot hope to progress at that level with not only that lack of experience in your team, but also a painful lack of quality in key areas, coupled with players (such as Edouard) who simply want away and are playing in 3rd gear!
And that sad state of affairs (if you're a Celtic fan) is ALL down to the board and those who run the club, for the embarrassing and disgraceful way they've dragged their heels, time and time again, in the transfer market and not completed deals that should've been done and dusted or strengthened the squad when it was patently obvious it was needed.
So Celtic now have a MASSIVE rebuilding job ahead of them, which will take time, and this new manager needs to be given it, as I'm confident that he'll get it right and build something good.
However, as I said before, don't expect any kind of 'real Celtic' until at least Christmas (once the new signings bed in), or possibly even after the January transfer window, as he'll need at least two recruitment windows, and time for those players to settle, before the team will be ready to mount a credible challenge to Rangers for the title.
Therefore, get ready to celebrate 2-in a row!
Marco.