No Celtic fun and games as politician answers come out amid inquest into failings

The joviality that so often accompanies an audience with Celtic manager Martin O’Neill was missing from his Friday press briefing at the club’s Lennoxtown training base.

And with good reason. Celtic are still a club in mourning after their Champions League aspirations were cremated in Linz on Tuesday night.

The ghosts of LASK certainly haven’t left O’Neill. The 74-year-old still appears haunted by what he presided over in Austria, where Celtic contrived to blow a four-goal lead in the tie and crash out 5-4 on aggregate.

Celtic manager Martin O'Neill hopes Celtic learn from the LASK defeat. | SNS Group

Friday’s Europa League draw offers some form of consolation. Benfica and Marseille are Champions League-level opponents and there are also assignments with Celta Vigo, Besiktas, Ferencvaros, Omonia Nicosia and Torreense. “I've got the list here in my pocket,” said O’Neill as he took his seat. “I saw Benfica, I never read any further!” before sombrely adding: “It's not the day for fun and games.”

O’Neill took enormous responsibility right after the LASK defeat and he re-emphasised that he also must carry the can for what happened. So too must his players, who capitulated so fecklessly when holding a commanding advantage. The post-mortem, naturally, has also involved the board getting it in the neck for recruitment. Celtic may have spent more than £25 million on four players, but that wasn’t enough.

The atmosphere inside Celtic Park is likely to be darker on Saturday afternoon when Falkirk visit on Premiership duty. There will be banners, perhaps even protests. LASK was a mood killer, that’s for sure.

Celtic’s recent record in European play-off ties is awful. They have lost their last six and going further back, only two out of ten have been won. The way they lost in Linz was novel, but the outcome was not. Celtic are systematic sinners when it comes to these games.

O’Neill is only responsible for this one. It was put to him that Celtic simply don’t prepare diligently enough for such assignments, which is an overwhelming sentiment among fans.

“Do you know, whatever you point out to me, I'm not in any position to disagree,” O’Neill said. “Your point about the six, you would have to look at it and really do analyse it and see if there is a, you know, if there is a common denominator and things like that there. I haven't had a chance to do that. I'm just ... I'm part of the statistic now.

“I can only make my judgements from me here at this minute and I think that trying to get real, decent players, quality players in to compete, not just domestically, but to at least be presentable, more than presentable in European spheres. I think that that's what we are striving for. And that's what the club should be.”

‘That’s the most important thing, attempting to learn’

O’Neill is the latest in a line of Celtic manager who have said roughly the same thing: the club can’t make the same mistakes. “We genuinely need to learn,” he said - something the fans have heard before. “That’s the most important thing, attempting to learn.

“I know that sounds like a politician answer after the whole thing and saying what we should have done. But in my moment in the ashes - and I do feel like that at the moment - I think the club will rise, and I’m hoping in the not-to-distant future. I might not be there but I do think the club will not just qualify but to make it through and really do fine in the competition, and attempting to get to the latter stages.”

In the immediate term, O’Neill has to rejuvenate his players, some of whom have been flogged by the irate Celtic fanbase. Poor Luke McCowan, the substitute midfielder who was cheaply dispossessed for LASK’s winning goal, became public enemy No 1 afterwards and had to delete his social media account. O’Neill didn’t have these issues to deal with back in the early noughties. MSN Messenger was all the rage, not Instagram.

"Generally speaking, I'm not in the mood for putting arms around players at this minute,” said O’Neill. “But I will. I do think things have changed, greatly.

"There have been a lot of trophies that have been won in the last 20-odd years. And I think my own experiences from when I came here at 48 until 74, life has really changed a lot. No such thing as social media existed in those days, like Luke McCowan taking lots of abuse. I just think life in general has changed.

“If it hadn't been Luke, it would have been somebody else. I was only pointing that out as sort of an example of how things have gone. People have been, throughout time, people subjected to lots of abuse now. And it just seems to be the way. That's my experience.”

Such negative talk has not been common at Celtic recently. The good start to this season seemed to ease the disharmony between club and fans. Losing to Kairat Almaty at the same stage of the Champions League last campaign nearly torpedoed Celtic. The same cannot happen again.

"Are you going to stem the flow of negativity?” pondered O’Neill. “I just think this is it. I think that people, first of all, you have to be disappointed, and if you're angry at that. I accept those things, absolutely accept them.

"But somewhere along the way we as a football club, have to get back up again as quickly as possible. Try and ride the disappointment out. And if I turn around and say this here, learn from it. Learn from it.

"If there are lessons to be learned, if there is a common denominator about not making it into the Champions League for each time you've had to play a qualifying game, let's genuinely analyse that."

The support has already done that. The long road back to life in the Champions League starts now.