Champions League Failure: Delia - stay or go?

They say it’s the hope that kills you. They are wrong. It’s a gutless display that really sticks the knife in and twists it.

Sure, Celtic shouldn’t have had a goal chalked off, and there was some refereeing tonight that would have had Scotland’s men in black nodding their heads in admiration. It was that bad!


But it was also pretty irrelevant. Because that was as atrocious and disappointing a Celtic display as you are likely to see in many a year. In the history of ‘performances relative to occasion’ that was one of the great let-downs. As we all know, Celtic made life more difficult for themselves than it should have been by letting 2-0 and 3-1 leads slip during the first leg. But there was no reason at all why a performance akin to the first half at Celtic Park last week wouldn’t have seen the Hoops get through to the Group Stages of the Champions League for the first time under Ronny Deila.

The talk from the club, manager and players was all upbeat and optimistic over the past few days. And the fans were quite happy to ‘believe’, because it seemed there was good cause to. But on the day the team – apart from Craig Gordon really – was abysmal.

Griffiths -who has been fantastic of late – was lucky to stay on the pitch after ‘allowing’ his knee to make contact with the ‘groin’ of Anton Tinnerholm. Scott Brown largely disappeared rather than imposing himself on the game, and Bitton was lucky to be hauled off by Ronny before he was sent off.

I could go on…

But suffice it to say that Celtic were awful in almost all departments and deservedly lost to an outfit that – while no better on paper – simply seemed to want it more. Quite how Ronny and John Collins managed to put out a team that played in such an insipid way, and quite how the players managed to virtually sleepwalk through much of the game is a mystery. However, it should not remain a mystery for long.

This was a performance worthy of a post-mortem. The club, manager and players need to take a long hard look at themselves to try and understand what went wrong, and what needs to be changed. In the short, medium and longer term. It was heartening to hear Scott Brown say after the game that he was “ashamed” of the performance, although I would have preferred to see a bit more of that kind of passionate feeling on the pitch tonight. Champions League football has to be the aim for Celtic, and they have fallen short for a second successive year. They do not have the domestic TV riches to enable them to compete with the ‘biggest’ European clubs, but they can certainly hope to win through qualifying and then make a decent showing in the Champions League groups.

And that hasn’t happened. So questions must be asked. But that’s enough doom and gloom for now!
Celtic’s hitherto improved performance in Europe this season means that they have Europa League football to ‘fall back’ on.

Without any involvement by the Court of Arbitration for Sport! As we saw last season – especially against Inter – Europa League football can be exciting and occasionally epic! How many seasons have there been in the past where Celtic’s European campaign has ended before the domestic one has really got going? This season, European football is guaranteed for several more months.

Celtic also have the domestic competitions to look forward to, where the challenge from Aberdeen and Hearts in the League looks set to be strong, and where ANYTHING can happen in the Cups. The beauty of football is that there is always another game around the corner. A fresh challenge. Another reason to get excited. Tonight’s shocker has to be taken on the chin and learned-from.

Painfully. And I dare say with a big dose of schadenfreude from fans of other clubs or ‘clubs’. Meh…

But then we dust ourselves down and go again. Because you can be certain that the magic isn’t over. There’s plenty more to come.

 

Be keen to see what more non-UK based journalists made of the result last night.

The Champions League qualifiers are a nightmarish labyrinth of fixtures against mostly unknown entities and I always thought it would be difficult.

In saying that the performance and tactics last night were woeful and inexcusable. But one bad result doesn't make it a bad team or Ronny a bad manager.

 

Whoever wrote that is a grade a bawbag and probably lives in ediburgh

 

It's mostly pish. The guy calls Europa League football "Epic"

 

everything was fine up until he said no more doom and gloom and started bigging up the rejected by english mid table cup

 

Ronny is in the job until he loses a league title or gets a better offer

His belief in developing our own players fits comfortably with the Boards belief in not spending money

He's safe

And I'm glad, I like his ideas, I like his style of play and I like him

We are not a CL team, we punched above our weight for years in that tournament and eventually, by selling all your best players, We're going to face a drought

Lennon went to Bolton because Celtic wouldn't match his ambition

I'm disappointed by yesterday's game and Ronny is as much as fault as any of the players but overall I'm happy with what he's doing with what he's given

**** Hugh Keevins and his negativity we've got European Football until Christmas

 

That's the most sensible thing you've ever posted on here. You feeling OK?

 

who cares if were a CL team mindy, we have reserves who cant make the bench that cost more than the Malmo team

it was the biggest game of deilas career, another rare pressure game for him and he couldnt get an ounce out of what he had at his disposal, he got outclassed

can you imagine rangers in the league, pressure to win every week, hes been lucky to have zero pressure until now, we are just delaying the inevitable in my opinion

 

They sold Hooper, Ledley, Wanyama & Forster without ever replacing them with similar quality barring Gordon.

That was definitely a factor in Lennon leaving and I don't think he would do better with this squad and definitely wouldn't bring the development side that Lawwell clearly wants.

I agree with you that not qualifying for the CL is a failure but I think it's a failure from top-to-bottom not just on the management team.

 

it is becoming a mccoist situation, the huns are rubbing their hands at the prospect of him being celtic manager with collins when they get into the top division for the first time in their history

the same as when we didnt want mccoist to get sacked

yet some celtic fans are still deluding themselves that somehow the cheapest option norwegian nobody we settled for is actually a great manager who will surely deliver in 5 years

no excuses for not getting past that rank average malmo team, it was the worst performance ive ever seen from a celtic team bar none, ive got a strong opinion on this that the sooner we get him to **** the better

 

Dehydrated I think

 

of course its top to bottom, if they threw 10m at deila maybe it would have been different, the point still stands tho, what he had to work with was more than enough to get past malmo and the bottom line is with him

 

Sarky bastard.

 

Ronny wouldn't have gotten the job if Rangers were still here

I see his appointment as a complete restructuring before a serious challenge arrives that we'll be more than ready for

The death of Rangers gave us an opportunity to stop relying on expensive mercenaries and become more spartan in our outlook

Hope it works

 

celtic gettin ripped apart on talksport just now, manager and the board for their strategy of buying dundee united players, pathetic they say

thats the view down south

 

you've done it again m8. Unreal

 

HE knew at 2-1 in first leg, HE knew

 

Good tried and tested players won't come to us unless we are already in CL

 

I don't necessarily disagree, but it's a double edged sword. When we have qualified in the past we didn't buy the proven players even after qualifying. We've ****ed our chances of dangling the cl carrot in front of them by offering them to be the next Forster or wanyama by getting a big money move to England.

I'm all for project players, but when in a position of strength we need to speculate to accumulate a little. When in the cl a few years ago Lennon should have been backed by the offer of a bit more cash, thereby having the quality in place to try and ensure qualification the year later and then repeat.

Also how much money has been spunked on Bangura, blade, pukki, scepovic, cifti, boerigter etc. fees, wages and pay offs combined, could have had 1 or 2 quality players to complement the project players and also give the fans a bit of excitement