ALEX’S ANGLE: CELTIC AND THE SELF-DESTRUCT BUTTON

THE LAST VESTIGES of Celtic’s credibility at Europe’s top table vanished in the rubble of Linz last night.

The club’s reputation has been booted around among the game’s elite for some considerable time and a totally unacceptable 5-1 capitulation to LASK, hardly giants at this level, is further proof the Parkhead club are not equipped to deal with the pressures and challenges in the higher echelons.

It’s never easy to admit your team are second-rate, but how do you mount any plausible argument against such an observation, brutal though it may be, after Celtic achieved Champions League history by being the first side to go out of the competition after holding a three-goal first leg advantage?

Can’t be easy, but Martin O’Neill’s players achieved the feat as they relentlessly pressed the self-destruct button.

TWO ON A TIGHTROPE…Shaun Maloney and Martin O’Neill share their thoughts as Celtic toil against LASK in Austria last night.

With an hour left to play, Celtic were 4-0 ahead and a place in tomorrow’s draw in Monaco looked assured.

Benjamin Nygren, one of the team’s most consistent performers since the campaign’s kick-off, underwent a brainstorm and passed the ball with unerring accuracy straight to an opponent who took one touch before gleefully despatching an effort low beyond a flummoxed Viljami Sinisalo.

It was the lifeline the home side required – and, at that precise moment, O’Neill’s side were in trouble.

Do you believe this current Celtic team could have come back after going four goals behind in a European tie? No, me neither.

If you think otherwise, I am afraid you are being delusional.

It’s a harsh assertion, but there are players wearing green-and-white shirts at the moment who are nowhere near the levels of competency demanded by a club with pretensions of regularly mixing with the game’s glitterati.

Some individuals’ multiple deficiencies were routinely exposed in the Raiffeisen Arena, capacity 19,080. If there is anyone on the payroll at Parkhead who cannot handle such an atmosphere in that environment then may I suggest a career at Celtic is not one they should bother pursuing?

I am not an advocate of witch-hunts, but surely I cannot be alone in questioning the viability of some among O’Neill’s present-day squad?

To my mind, we have seen the best of Anthony Ralston. Yes, I realise he is a great club servant and a first-rate professional, but that amounts to zilch if he is not performing on matchday.

OH NO…Callum McGregor can’t hide his disappointment.

At 23, Dane Murray may have a solid career ahead of him, but I just cannot envisage it at Celtic. I have yet to see the worth of the central defender who has the look of a bit-part player even at this early stage of his chosen profession.

Luke McCowan, too, gives the impression of a minor support act. He is most certainly not the dependable performer required when the team is under the cosh with something like 20 minutes remaining.

What possessed him to try to waltz out of defence with the ball at his feet with the game stalemated 4-4 in extra-time we will never know. It’s possible he will never know, as well.

It was foolish and was punished to the maximum when he lost possession, a pass was slid in front of Samuel Adeniran and his low drive from outside the box bobbled past Sinisalo who was slow to react.

To be fair to the overworked Finn, it was his only mistake of the evening that was capped by a fine penalty-kick save from the same player. Alas, the keeper’s heroics went unrewarded.

And what can we say about Reo Hatate, introduced to the action for the manifestly out of sorts Nygren shortly after the hour mark?

The Japanese midfielder, who has never hidden the fact he would rather be elsewhere, was shunned in the dramatic run-in to the extraordinary double last season and yet O’Neill still thought enough of him to push him on against the Austrians at a time when so much was at stake.

It’s all so puzzling, isn’t it? Would he have got near the grass if Arne Engels had been around? And why did Celtic sell the Belgian playmaker ten days earlier to West Ham? Why not keep him until the final whistle in Linz last night?

OOPS…Reo Hatate sends a LASK player toppling to gift the Austrians a stoppage-time penalty-kick which was saved by Viljami Sinisalo.

Did the second-tier London club hit the Hoops with an ultimatum? Take the money – all £22million – now or we look elsewhere? With £40million Champions League cash at stake, there’s really only one answer, isn’t there?

There’s always a bit of bluff and counter-bluff in these deals and you have to hope the club’s decision-makers have picked up a hint or two in the market if they wish for success over the next week or so before the deadline.

I never thought I would witness it, but Cameron Carter-Vickers was bullied last night by the human wrecking ball that is the aforementioned Adeniran who was allowed carte blanche by a lenient Polish referee to throw his considerable weight around all night.

The 6ft 5in attack-leader battered into the unsuspecting Colby Donovan from behind fairly early on in proceedings and the match official didn’t even seek a word in his lughole to ask the player to please observe some of the niceties of the game and not attempt to hospitalise a fair percentage of the opposition.

Kieran Tierney? Will we ever see him put in a full 90 minutes in the heat of the battle again? Once more. he was removed from the action long before the conclusion and it seems to be a trend we have to accept.

That being the case, why on earth did Celtic not sign Marcelo Saracchi on a permanent deal in the summer? The Uruguayan was a stand-out stand-in when required and it’s simply unfathomable he was allowed to walk away.

Good luck to him at MLS club Houston Dynamo following his permanent move for under £1million from Boca Juniors. But he should be plying his trade in Glasgow for the forseeable.

It appears Liam Scales is now Tierney’s designated deputy. Hands up anyone who believes the Republic of Ireland international is a better left-back than Saracchi.

So many questions, so little time.

I have deliberately body-swerved any criticism of Kasper Hogh, Camilo Duran and Mika Baur on what they offered in Austria. Their time will come, along with that of Hassiem Hassan. Judgement Day will be with us soon enough.

Somehow, from within the wreckage of another Champions League calamity, 74-year-old Martin O’Neill will have to raise the spirits of his hollowed-out players and reassure the more vulnerable among them they still have a massive role to play for the team.

The charismatic Irishman may be forced into blarney overload.

ALEX GORDON