Bodo/Glimt v Celtic Thursday February 24th kickoff 5:45PM BT Sport ESPN

So many of you making excuses tonight to justify this but we should absolutely not be getting turned over by Bodo. Budget, internationals, them being in pre season etc

The bottom line is were just not good enough yet for competitive end European football. Domestic performances can flatter us as its easy to get carried away by turning over the majority of teams in our league but when push comes to shove in Europe, we fall short.

 

Is that all you said? You had a knock to the nut?

I must've imagined you saying Bitton is a better 6 than McGregor at European level........

 

Wit?

 

Aye but my perspective is - will folks say the same thing if we win the league and are in the CL next season?

Will we then say that winning the league next season is more important that competing as well as we can in the CL? So we resort to weakened lineups?

Honestly, I’m just fed up of being embarrassed in Europe over 3 competitions now. That’s what my emotions are deriving from just now.

 

He is, being hung out to dry tonight by Anges team selection doesn't change that

 

Well that's thst over. This humiliation might just give us a kick up the * we need to push on for the rest of the season. Plenty of excuses for tonight but definitely none from now on for the coming months.

 

That doesn't cut what I'm saying...
Players need to show their metal under pressure ....not friendly games

 

I thought that wasn't what I quoting

Get your tongue off your window and start making sense..

 

100% mate, at the end of the day it’s 1 of they trophies, people given it it’s a joke of a tournament , if you win it you get into the europa league which at worst we would be in anyway, it’s a * distraction, ties would have got tougher playing home and away on a Thursday night playing catch up on Sunday s at the business end of the league knocks * out you physically and mentally if we win the league and go straight into the champions league no one will be giving a * about this daft trophy , players can relax and just go for the title, genuinely quite glad it’s oot the way

 

Been too long since we qualified now. Will let us build and be more competitive in Europe under a quality coach..

It may take a couple of year for us to do something but there's been signs of it in our group stage with a pretty weak squad at that stage..

 

Thats a big reality check. Other than the goal we scored, we didnt really lay a glove on that mobb.
They are a lot better organised than us and the fact that they are in their pre season and have sold 4 of their best players from last season adds perspective.
Lets not take away from Bodø, what they have done/are doing is remarkable. Their manager wont be there long.

 

You were highly critical of CalMac lately, he isn't a CDM, doesn't have the defensive ability to play that role effectively enough, Bitton therefore by default is a better player than him in that position

 

Lol..

 

Have to agree. Calmac's the better player, but I rate Bitton above him at DM. The reason Calmac's playing there is because we're stacked in midfield and he has more versatility than most. But he's far from a natural in that position. He's there ahead of Bitton because Ange inherited him as captain.

 

His scoring record is surprisingly not that great at all

 

You hit the nail on the head, the expectation or excuses being peddled are just small time mentality. We are Celtic football club.

Additionally this excuse every year that gets peddled about lack of match sharpness before CL or EL qualifying games has just been blown out the water by a team that hadn’t played a competitive match in 2.5 months!

 

Anything this season in Europe was a bonus. People seem to forget the absolute shambles Ange inherited. It's not an excuse its an absolute * fact.

Win the league and further strengthen and next season we can Judge his Euro campaign. This happens next season I'll agree its utter failure

 

Aye you could be right, but I’ve just watched 2 legs where we hardly layed a glove on them. And we didn’t even put out our best lineup at any point in the second leg.

Aye they’re a decent team but our best players could do with playing both Bodo and Hibs in my opinion. Not least for their development but I genuinely feel that just about a month after the winter break ended that we shouldn’t be resting players left, right and centre. Not for me, mate.

 

It's all about money.

You can all * and moan about budgets and performances etc but winning our league title this year is critical because of the money.

If we lose the league we are handing money over to rivals, money we could be using to actually build a real foundation and structure under Ange, celtic could be considered a "all gear, no idea" type. We've got bigger budgets then the likes of bodo obviously, but as it's plainly evident, clubs like bodo have a better idea, direction, overall system as a club than we do, to the point that they rinse Roma, lose all of their big stars and then proceed to rinse us because the manager and the structure of the club is so well run you'd think they'd sold no-one.

Leverkusen and Betis didn't even really shows up like this, Bodo deserve some respect. Quality outfit from top to bottom.

 

Don't get me wrong, before the tie I was hopeful of going through and making a dent i the tournament, but that was a good side and it's shown us what we need to do to improve.

I just ain't getting carried away, and am making the effort to remember where we were at the start of the season. It's still a work in progress and the next step is winning the league. Europe was always going to be a learning curve for this squad and overall I think we did ok between the EL and conference.