Celtic fans will be delighted by Ange Postecoglou’s comments

Celtic’s return to the Champions League was not a success. They are guaranteed to finish bottom of their group, following their 1-1 draw vs RB Leipzig. The Hoops have failed to win a single group game and their only chance left to do so is to beat Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu. A Herculean task if there ever was one. Yet, it would be a mistake to call the European campaign a failure.

The performances from Celtic were better than most fans could have expected coming into the season. There have been no real heavy defeats and they could have easily beaten Shakhtar Donetsk in both games, and taken something against Real Madrid and RB Leipzig as well.

What let them down was their finishing, which was very poor to be honest. It is an area they will need to work on if they are to succeed at any level of European football.

Ange Postecoglou seems to have his eye on turning this team into regulars in the Champions League though and not one for whom competing in the competition is a novelty that comes around every five years or so. As reported by STV News, the Celtic manager said:

"“It’s up to us to make sure that we’re in it again next year.“That’s part of the process.“You can’t go into this competition every five years and expect to make an impact.“The first challenge for us is to become a Champions League football club. That means qualifying every year.“I think with what we’ve gone through this yea, and the way we’ve tested ourselves, there’s no doubt that should we qualify again this group of players will be much better for the experience.“They’ll understand from the first game what’s required and the levels needed, the understandings and the fine lines between winning or not winning a game.“So I definitely think this year will help us. The challenge is to qualify again next year, qualify the year after, and consistently be at this level.“This is a group that’s very, very inexperienced in terms of this level of football. Look at where most of them were playing twelve months ago.“This is there first time so it would be a missed opportunity if we didn’t qualify next year to use what we’ve gained this time and become a better football club at this level next year.”"

Postecoglou wants Celtic to be Champions League regulars

Celtic qualified for the group stage of the Champions League this season as a result of winning the Scottish league last time around.

It will be interesting to see how many times that option is there. In the past, they have had a very rough time getting through a tough qualifying process. Even Postecoglou stumbled at that step in the previous campaign.

At the same time, Postecoglou’s comments also do suggest that he is at Celtic for the long run, even though he has been constantly linked with a move down south in recent months.