Chris Sutton believes that tonight’s Europa League exit is a reality check for Celtic.
Neil Lennon will be aware of the shortcomings in the squad but it’s unlikely that that message will reach the boardroom spread-sheets.
An experienced central defender was required in January, Chris Jullien and Kris Ajer have played virtually every match since the November international break.
Rather than bring in a defender Peter Lawwell decided to sign two more projects with Patryk Klimala and Ismaila Soro making a similar impact to Marian Shved and Vakoun Bayo as they watched from the stand tonight.
Worst thing for the Celtic players tonight is they will know it was a great opportunity to get to the last 16… I’ll eat my hat if FC Copenhagen get much further… but reality checks aren’t a bad thing at times…
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) February 27, 2020
As far back as January 2017 a replacement or successor to Scott Brown was identified as a need by Brendan Rodgers but despite signing Eboue Kouassi, Olivier Ntcham and Soro the mood of the team is still largely determined by Brown who has played in all but one of this season’s SPFL matches.
With St Johnstone and Livingston to be played in the next seven days there is little time for a European post mortem but if the club are to return to the group stages of the Champions League some serious investment is required in the summer.
Over the last two years the summer window has produced transfer profits on the back of selling Moussa Dembele and Kieran Tierney with Chris Jullien the only significant signing to bolster the starting XI.
Tonight Copenhagen joined Cluj, AEK Athens, Malmo and Maribor in showing up Celtic under three different managers, but the same Chief Executive.