Lessons From Catalonia

Charlie Saiz ponders the European campaign, and wonders if its always going to be this way…

We should really have known better after a great result in the League ( 5-1 v “rangers ” )that Barcelona  going to be an impossible mountain to climb. The step up in quality proved too much
To be fair it has been a fairly tremendous start to the season barring the  bad results in the Champions League qualifiers in Gibraltar and then Israel.
Domestically we have asserted some authority in the League, but  in Europe have we actually shown any shown signs of progression after last season ?
Should we be too  surprised at the relative ease Barca tore us apart last week ?
After all Lincoln Red Imps and Hapoel managed to do so so no less than 5 times between them. Hapoel, granted,  then going on to beat Inter Milan, and just yesterday Inter beat Juventus…
Brendan Rodgers has inherited a side that at best were mediocre Europa League level as did Ronny Deila previous to him. He has bought well in general, but the side are still short of Champions League level.

Fact is in Neil Lennons final year the side he built was stripped of it’s assets and never really replaced with similar quality.

Deila , too , had that problem, and Rodgers has been handed the task of sorting it out.
We were at best Europa League level, sometimes even below that.
I believe at Celtic and other clubs in our position ( Ajax, Porto, etc ) that European success is cyclic?
A couple of  good seasons followed by three or four of mediocrity, then rinse and repeat.
Transfers,retirements and injuries as well as Management changes which seem to be far more regular now at Celtic have impacted negatively more than positively, meaning that a settled build cannot be undertaken to maintain a high level of quality, neccessary for regular champions League participation.

Brendan has come in and had an immediate impact on the players,more so than Deila who tried to alter a great many things in a short space of time.

His time ran out.
With these things already in place Brendan has been able to alter the approach slightly more and bring in a better standard of player than Deila could.
However even that standard of player outwith Toure has never experienced what they experienced tonight.
Barca are at the very top of the game and with all the best will in the world the likes of Toure Sinclair,Gamboa and Dembele simply aren’t in that class.
It’s going to take a season at this level  for them to find their feet.  Toure may have  been there before but he is at the tail end of his career and is surely there to guide the youngsters rather than have an eefect himself.
A yard slower against Messi ,Neymar and Suarez might as well be 10 these guys are playing X Box football after all not the SPFL kickball we, and the players, are used to.
So whilst I am down beat and gutted at the scoreline tonight deep down I had a feeling it could well be on the cards. And i probably wasn;t the only one.
For me it all depended what Barca was going to turn up tonight regardless of what Celtic did.
As it turned out, they showed they are a different class playing on a much higher level of technical ability which proved too much for our players.
This season was about qualifying, about  getting the finances in place so that Brendan and the board can bring in the quality needed to operate at this level. Whether they will or won;t remains to be seen.
Sure we all hope the side put up a fight and give it their best against both Barca and City whilst perhaps getting a result or two against the Germans bu the reality is we dropped into one of the toughest Groups in the draw. but then again, being in pot four, there was never going to be an easy group.
We need to be patient, as the process has become more  cyclic and this season is about evaluating,building and strengthening to hopefully build a side who won’t get pumped by the very best but will play above themselves and perhaps even humble the mighty like in 2012.
The Barcelona game has shown there is still a long, long way to go.
I have faith Rodgers will improve this side enough to able to reach that level again. In reality, though, it was always unlikely it would be this season, or even next time.

He needs time and we need to be patient this is by no means an easy task.
My hope for the season before a ball was kicked was a good extended showing in the Europa after hopefully qualifying for the Champions League proper.
As it was when Deila took over.
He failed in that respect but Brendan has managed to complete the first stage.

The players need to learn at this level, they need to learn very quickly, and if they do, there;s a slight chance that the hoops will finish third, and perhaps even use their new found experience and knowledge to have a real crack at the Europa League, but first they need to believe that they belong at this level, as the Barcelona game didn’t show they have any belief in themselves in the rarified UCL atmosphere.

The group is shaping up to be a battle for third between Celtic and Borussia Moenchengladbach, which means each and every point of the remiaing fifteen available must be fought for with a passion not so far shown by the current side, starting at home to Manchester City, who on paper could do the same damage to Celtic as Barcelona.

Thankfully, though, games are not played on paper.

If our European campaigns are indeed going to continue on a pattern of two good, three bad, then perhaps we might as well just try to enjoy this one.