Once again, Celtic were in a good position. A position where we were doing well domestically, we were the team that nobody wanted to play against in Europe.
In the Champions League group stages, we were usually the fourth seeded team but despite that, we were the team that all managers and players of all teams would prefer to avoid.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, there was ‘that’ amazing night versus Barcelona but there were also home wins against AC Milan, Manchester Utd, Benfica and Porto to name a few.
Think of some of the players who have walked off our pitch as defeated players at the end of a match. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are two of them.
Now though, we’re the team that even the so called smaller European teams would love to be drawn against. It’s an almighty fall from grace and from my point of view, it’s quite a painful thing to watch. Not many teams will fear playing against us now.
This year, I’ll be celebrating my 32nd birthday and I’ve been a season ticket holder for close to 20 years so I do remember when the team was pretty rubbish. I grew up watching us playing against the banks millions plus masses of other factors that Rangers had going in their favour.
Despite all that, we were able to beat them and we were able to get into a position that allowed us to beat some of the teams that I have mentioned above.
So, my question is why have we not kicked on? We are one of the biggest supported clubs around. We have more season ticket holders than most. We’ve been raking in money for several years via various European and friendly tournaments.
However. since 2003, after the UEFA cup final, I feel like the team have been downsizing. I remember shortly after that match that I was saying it would have been time to break up the team and get some of the players sold for a fairly high fee and then replace and rebuild with younger players.
Regardless of what I thought and still think of that Porto team, we were not good enough to beat them. At that point, if you have players involved in a European final, they could have been moved on for quite a high fee.
Then I felt as if it would have been a perfect time to rebuild our team. But Celtic didn’t want to spend very much money.
Anyone who has read my blogs over the last seasons will know that I am just an ordinary fan, I don’t have any special knowledge of football or business but I know that there are people at our club who are paid huge amounts of money to ensure that our club is going in the “right direction”.
Maybe my idea of the “right direction”, as fan, is different to what the boards idea is of the same thing ?
Maybe next week, we will get the victory that will allow us to get past Legia Warsaw.
Maybe by this team next week, we will all have forgotten about the mid-week hammering by Legia.
Maybe I’m being overly optimistic. I’ve no idea what is going to happen – otherwise, I’d be playing the Euro millions and going to the bookies regularly but the one thing I do know is that it’s my view that we need a change at the top of our club.
The current chief executive has been in place since September 2003 and we have been constantly downsizing since then. Do I think that one man is wholly responsible for it? No chance but I just don’t like the direction our club is going in.
I’ve heard some fans say that they will not be going to the game next week because of the result away to Legia. I’m not of that opinion. I will be going to Celtic Park as long as I am physically able to.
As things stand, I almost feel like we are in an ‘us v them’ type of situation. There’s the players and the fans then there’s the PLC.
Nobody will take my club away from me.
My Grandad used to go to the games until he wasn’t able to. My Dad has been going for most of his life as have a lot other folk within the family and I plan to do the same. It’s important to remember that the club will keep going after the current staff and players have gone.
As of mid September, I am leaving here and heading to China to start a years travelling round Asia. Without me, the club will keep going – nobody is bigger than the club but it’s about time that the club showed more ambition.
Simply getting into the Champions League group stages, like we did last year, isn’t good enough. Apart from one home match, we were made to look pretty awful. I want to see the club competing against the best. One way to stop doing that is to stop moving on all of our better players.