Brendan Rodgers has claimed that the mental strength of his squad is not up for question.
Many Celtic fans would disagree after watching largely the same group of players fail to deliver over a number of years.
By and large the squad that lost to Lincoln Red Imps have seen in all before. They have lost out from decent positions to Maribor and Malmo in the Champions League, failed to win in six Europa League matches and lost out to Ross County and Sevco in Hampden semi-finals.
So far Rodgers has only signed Moussa Dembele but after working with the players for three weeks the hoops boss has no reason to question them in public.
“I don’t think it was mental strength,” he said after losing to Lincoln Red Imps. “We arrived just over 20 days into pre-season. We are very much unified as a group.
‘We understand a result like this will always provoke a reaction but for us, we get back into work again, we have a friendly at the weekend, then we’ll be seven days further into it by next week.”
Rodgers added: “I’m not really shocked. I’ve been around the game long enough, I know these results can happen. We stay calm. We know what our objective is over the course of the round. We need to put in a performance and get a result next week.
“Even if we had won here, the job wouldn’t be done. The result here complicates it a bit for us. It’s a competitive game and we want to win every game. But we move on to next week, when we’ll be a week further into our preparations.
“Over the course of the two games, if we didn’t get through, then I would have a big concern, of course.
“It’s a disappointing result but there were many factors behind it. We accept it as a group, look to put it right in the next game.”
The right result against Lincoln Red Imps is expected and demanded next week, the manner in which it is achieved will be as important as the thousands of supporters that welcomed Rodgers arrival provide another verdict.