With his first three words in an interview with Celtic TV Callum McGregor summed up the feelings of many Celtic fans. Not good enough.
The midfielder tried his best but the weight of a club that appears to be imploding is taking its toll on the last of the regulars from the Quadruple Treble period.
Even without 13 players Celtic had four days to train and prepare for a team assembled from Walsall and other football outposts but one playing with a purpose and belief.
If former Celt Efe Ambrose could control his headers the result could have been much worse.
After finishing 2020 on something of a winning run Celtic have started the new year with two points from three matches to render their league challenge meaningless.
In the previous four seasons the Dubai trip has provided the tonic to pick the season up, come back refreshed and ready to sweep aside the challenges in front.
Keeping with the most disastrous season in a decade this year’s Dubai trip has had the opposite effect with results nose-diving.
Rather than enjoy a world class training facility Celtic could have played one of their outstanding fixtures and tried to recover the momentum that they had been building before Ibrox.
McGregor no longer has the calibre of player around him that he enjoyed developing with two or three years ago. The impact is obvious and depressing as he showed during his Celtic TV interview.
Not good enough, took far too long to get going in the first half. We put ourselves under pressure, you know, didn’t really understand the game in terms of trying to build out, we’re putting ourselves under pressure and giving them territory. That’s what they want. Really, really poor.