The hope was that Celtic would improve in the Champions League this season. That clearly has not happened. The performance levels when compared to last season feel similar if not slightly down. On the other hand, there has been no improvement when it comes to the results. Their latest effort in Europe’s elite competition was a 6-0 defeat at the hands of Atletico Madrid away at the Metropolitano Stadium.
There is no hiding from the fact that Celtic are not ready to compete at this level. There are periods in games when they look good, but overall, they struggle to produce good displays over the full 90 minutes.
That is why most fans were concerned when the club decided to bring in a number of talented youngsters to the club over the summer but added no experienced or proven players to their ranks. And a lot of the fears have come true since then.
Yes, we understand that it is part of Celtic’s transfer policy. At the same time, they need to find the right mixture of youth and experience instead of leaning on just one and hoping things work out.
Rodgers publicly makes blunt Celtic admission
As reported by Sky Sports, when asked if the Celtic squad needs added quality in order to compete in the Champions League, Brendan Rodgers said:
"“There’s absolutely no doubt.“It’s what I’ve said all along that you need to have quality in your squad, in particular at the very highest level, that’s what wins you games and makes the difference.“The players here deserve a huge amount of credit in terms of their performance in the games but of course in order to progress in it, it’s about quality and that’s the reality at this level.”"
Thus, Rodgers has come out and made his thoughts clear in public. Now, it is up to the club to deliver what the manager is looking for. After that, if things don’t work out, one can ask questions of the Northern Irishman. But not until then.
It will be interesting to see if Celtic’s transfer policy will shift a bit next summer after seeing how things have played out this time around, and not for the first time. Hopefully it will. But it won’t be much of a surprise if it does.