Celtic reality 2015

Why would we expect to be in the Champions League, or even in the latter stages of the Champions League.

Celtic are not among the 100 richest European clubs according to Transfermarkt:

http://www.transfermarkt.com/spieler-statistik/wertvollstemannschaften/marktwertetop

Our budget is a lower English Championship budget.

Maybe not even that.

We sell our 2 or 3 best players every year.

But we still expect to compete with teams in the Champions league.

Is this realistic?

 

Yes.

 

Almost every team in the qualifiers we play we dwarf there transfer budget

 

Yes.

It's all relative. The teams that have denied us entry in the last 2 seasons have budgets a fraction of our own.

 

Yes.

 

Yes. as long as we have the champions route it's extremely unlikely that we will have to play a team that can match us for budget.

It's irrelevant where we rank in an absolute list of the 100 richest clubs, only that we're bigger and wealthier than any team we're likely to play in our route to the CL proper.

So depressing to see the absolute defeatism here at times. We'be reduced our expectations so much that we don't feel like we should be beating teams like Molde, legia and Malmo.

 

Where are Maribor and Malmo on that list?

Exactly.

 

I don't think people are getting the point though (I'm not sure about your richlist point), apart from the 12/13 season Lenny REALLY REALLY struggled in Europe for the most part. Didn't get us into Europe at all in his first season, in his second he needed Sion being kicked out and then we didn't even get out of our Europa League group. Then in his final season we just about, by the skin of our teeth, beat Shaktar Karagandy who're far worse than Molde, Malmo and Maribor.

So those who think Lenny is * surely cannot then heavily criticise Ronny's European record with us.

I can understand if you think we should be doing better as whole and think Lenny should have done better too. But those who praise Lenny and then slate Ronny for not getting us in the CL are nothing short of ridiculous.

Our spend is one thing but clubs like Molde and Malmo for example work in a different market, one where they seem to get higher quality for cheaper prices. There's no way guys like GMS, Armstrong, Jozo, etc are better than the cheap players that those Scandinavian clubs can regularly attract. Also there is the issue that there's more quality in their youth systems than in Scotland at the moment. The Norwegian league is also better and more competitive than ours currently.

 

That used to be true, but nowadays it is not so true anymore, unfortunately.

 

Yes, Malmo and Maribor have lower budgets, poorer squads and are tiny teams in comparison to Celtic. So yes it's realistic we should be beating these teams over two legs.

 

What teams have we been eliminated by that have bigger budgets than us?

 

You conveniently left out that Lennon got us into the last 16 of the CL.

 

Lennon got us into the CL twice in 4 seasons after picking up a terrible Celtic side. deila inherited a side with the likes of VVD, Bitton, griffiths, brown, and Commons. Its practically impossible to compare the two because the squad each man inherited are miles apart.

 

How many times have Celtic won a treble in 128 years?
How many times have we been in Europe after Christmas in the last 25 years?
Why are these being discussed as the minimum requirements for our current manager?

 

First team that comes to mind is Milan, which beat us out of Europe last year.

 

NO I * DIDN'T. I SAID IN 3 OF OUR 4 SEASONS WE DID ABSOLUTELY * IN EUROPE UNDER LENNY (I.E I ACKNOWLEDGE WE DID BRILLIANTLY IN 12/13). HOW HARD IS THAT TO UNDERSTAND????

I'm saying that in Lenny's first two seasons we were awful in Europe. In Ronny's first two we did well last season to get to the EL last 32 considering it's hist first season, though we're struggling this year.

* this place. This is why I don't come into Celtic Chat too often, people lose the ability to read things.

 

What happened 125 or 25 years ago is largely irrelevant.

We have no domestic competition, for the first time in my life as a Celtic fan the league is an absolute given no questions asked. Cup competitions provide some uncertainty due to the knockout format but we're still miles better than anyone we could possibly face.

 

Well that escalated quickly.

 

How is qualifying for the CL 'absolutely *'? Lennons 'absolute *' is infinitely better than anything Deila has provided so far but still people feel the need to make this ridiculous comparison as if it makes Deila look good,

 

Because some Celtic fans were so in love with Neil Lennon as a manager that they can not find place in their hearts for a new Celtic Manager.