Celtic Diary Thursday January 22 2026: The Hope That Thrills Us

After six games of a Europa League campaign that could , or should, by now be heading towards being instantly forgettable, bar a decent win in Rotterdam, Celtic are still in with a shout of making the knockout stages. It may be more of a whisper than a shout, given previous performances, but there is still a chance.

Even if the side fail to register a point against Bologna tonight.

That may say more about the tournaments fixture heavy format than it does about the teams resilience, but hopefully there is enough belief among the players that they can still make a go of it.

Celtic sit in 24th place on seven points, and according to the plethora of computer based statisticians on social media, even finishing on nine points could be enough to qualify. Which is ridiculous, when you think about it, but hey-ho, if it’s there, then the hoops should certainly grasp any straws that come their way.

Hard to believe that three different managers have held the reins for those six matches, and another managerial change is in place for tonights game, albeit with O’Neill having already taken charge for the Feyenoord game earlier…hang on, that was the one where we played quite well.

And , like tonight, it was an away game…and we’ve done alright in Italy recently, Atalanta, Lazio .

Am I just trying to talk our chances up, or is there a realistic chance Celtic can come away with something tonight ?

Of course it could, and if we looked hard enough, we could probably find a dozen reasons to feed our optimism.

Unfortunately, if we looked equally hard, we could probably find a dozen reasons why it won’t.

So I’m going to suggest that we balance that out, and hope that the pre match message from O’Neill to his players is along the lines of the old adage, that whether you think you’re going to have a good day, or you think you’re going to have a bad day, you’ll be right.

Tonight will require character and positivity. Celtic need to put everything into it, no stray passes, no half arsed challenges, and above all the composure to take any chances that come our way.

I feel better already, but at around a quarter to six tonight, i’ll probably revert to my usual European away game status…

But, as they say, anything can happen.

One reason to be cheerful is the defence ..and goalkeeper…seem to have suddenly got the hang of keeping the ball out of the net. And at the other end of the pitch, we seem to have remembered, sort of, how to score.

Or at least look like we could score, especially in the second half of games. Players have remembered where they should be, and where their team mates should be.

If i have only one real fear it’s that we wear an away strip tonight, the blackish one, which to my mind makes it harder to pick out team mates against the backdrop of a crowd. you’ll see what I mean when a few passes go into touch if we do.

Bologna have pretty much already qualified, even a point for them will more or less make it certain. Though they may fancy their chances of finishing in the top eight to avoid an extra round of matches, they may also decide it isn’t worth the hassle. Perhaps they would settle for a draw as well…

Maybe so, but that’s what straws are for.

There are still a number of stories about players coming or going doing the rounds, most of which have gained credence simply by the amount of times they’ve been copied.

The manager has played down the arrival of Tomas Cvancara, pointing out that he isn;t the answer to all our problems, as a frantic media tried to put pressure on him to trumpet his arrival.

That’s because the management know what they are doing, and are not letting anyone in on any of their targets….

There was a backlash from the agent of Jocelin Ta Bi, who claimed Celtic fans were sending his client messages about not being wanted because he is a Zionist, which he isn’t, and it’s unlikely those messages exist. Then he said Celtic were dragging their feet because they were afraid of a fan backlash because Celtic were doing business with a club that has links to an Israeli arms manufacturer , but in reality, this was a Tisdale deal and the new management not only didn’t fancy this player, but promptly threw the rest of the quack’s recommendations into the bin as well.

There are whispers that Tisdale had been looking for brown bag bonuses with some of his recommendations as well, which is nonsense. apart from that, any indicements would have been performance based, and none of the players, or managers, or coaches he brought in would have reached the parameters for any sort of bonus to be payable.

No matter what the outcome tonight, though, at least we’re all enjoying the football again, and the thirty three day nightmare is over.

Yesterday, we had this…

Today…