BenLynch29
Well-known member
I may need to take a day’s break from the forum. There’s a lot of moaning and excuses in various thread right now related to last night’s loss. Don’t worry - I won’t let the door hit me on the way out!
But seriously, last night was a very winnable game for us and I refuse to accept that we can’t compete at this level or get results against clubs like Valencia on more than a one-off basis. Valencia are a good squad, and credit where it’s due: they came with a plan to get a result and didn’t make silly mistakes. That our own club didn’t do the same doesn’t mean that we can’t compete against Valencia or at this level of European competition generally. All it means is that we failed to succeed where we should have more than the ocassional success.
Look at this chart for a minute:
Celtic is a middle of the pack team with respect to resources at this stage of the Europa League, and even then money doesn’t always guarantee results. Arsenal, Lazio, Galatasray all lost yesterday while Leverkusen was held scoreless and Chelsea only won by a single goal again lowly Malmo. How is it that Salzburg can go 6-0 in the group stage including a decisive win at Celtic Park? It’s clearly not because they have more money than we do! And it also isn’t because they play in the super awesome Austrian league against vastly superior competition.
The truth is we lost last night because of defensive mistakes made by players who should have, by all rights, been replaced in the January transfer window. We might not have won had we not made those mistakes, but a 0-0 result would have been fair given the level of competition.
It’s also fair to recognize BR’s part in this failure, both on the player recruitment front as well as the tactics. He may be the best manager we’ve had since Jock, and perhaps even equal, but he’s not infallible.
I refuse to accept that we can’t or won’t ever be a force in European competition again. We have sufficient resources to regularly go on a deep run in Europa. Instead of accepting failure as our lot in life, we should be asking (demanding?) what the club is doing to address our shortcomings?
Finally, the fact needs to be addressed that every club that has beaten us this year, both domestically as well as Europa and Champions League, have lower turnover than we do. That’s a verifiable fact. This isn’t an issue of inferior resources. This is an issue of being beaten by those with fewer resources than we have - and that includes Valencia last night, as well as Salzburg, Athens, Hibs, and Rangers. With nearly £40m in the bank and more on the way, we should be asking what our club is going to do to take us further than the round of 32 in Europa.
Or is another treble and 10 in a row the extent of our ambition against squads that are, at best, 1/2 or 1/3 as expensive as ours?
But seriously, last night was a very winnable game for us and I refuse to accept that we can’t compete at this level or get results against clubs like Valencia on more than a one-off basis. Valencia are a good squad, and credit where it’s due: they came with a plan to get a result and didn’t make silly mistakes. That our own club didn’t do the same doesn’t mean that we can’t compete against Valencia or at this level of European competition generally. All it means is that we failed to succeed where we should have more than the ocassional success.
Look at this chart for a minute:
Celtic is a middle of the pack team with respect to resources at this stage of the Europa League, and even then money doesn’t always guarantee results. Arsenal, Lazio, Galatasray all lost yesterday while Leverkusen was held scoreless and Chelsea only won by a single goal again lowly Malmo. How is it that Salzburg can go 6-0 in the group stage including a decisive win at Celtic Park? It’s clearly not because they have more money than we do! And it also isn’t because they play in the super awesome Austrian league against vastly superior competition.
The truth is we lost last night because of defensive mistakes made by players who should have, by all rights, been replaced in the January transfer window. We might not have won had we not made those mistakes, but a 0-0 result would have been fair given the level of competition.
It’s also fair to recognize BR’s part in this failure, both on the player recruitment front as well as the tactics. He may be the best manager we’ve had since Jock, and perhaps even equal, but he’s not infallible.
I refuse to accept that we can’t or won’t ever be a force in European competition again. We have sufficient resources to regularly go on a deep run in Europa. Instead of accepting failure as our lot in life, we should be asking (demanding?) what the club is doing to address our shortcomings?
Finally, the fact needs to be addressed that every club that has beaten us this year, both domestically as well as Europa and Champions League, have lower turnover than we do. That’s a verifiable fact. This isn’t an issue of inferior resources. This is an issue of being beaten by those with fewer resources than we have - and that includes Valencia last night, as well as Salzburg, Athens, Hibs, and Rangers. With nearly £40m in the bank and more on the way, we should be asking what our club is going to do to take us further than the round of 32 in Europa.
Or is another treble and 10 in a row the extent of our ambition against squads that are, at best, 1/2 or 1/3 as expensive as ours?