The elimination of Aston Villa and Borussia Dortmund from the Champions League last night assures that the winner of this season’s tournament will already have qualified from their domestic league. As a result, Greek champions Olympiacos will automatically qualify for the league stage of next season’s tournament. This leaves one more seeded space open for Celtic.
Five teams will be seeded in the playoff round. Bodo/Glimt and Red Star have a higher coefficients than Celtic and will both be seeded. Ferencvaros have clawed back a deficit and are a point ahead in Hungary with six to play; I expect them to take the title. That leaves us chasing two seeded places.
The challenges from Salzburg (5 adrift, 7 to play) and Shakhtar Donetsk (10 adrift, 7 to play with a game in hand) and Dinamo Zagreb (7 down and 7 to play) do not look like they will materialise.
The most interesting European league this season could arguably be in Switzerland. You will remember Young Boys were 10th in their domestic table and bottom of the Champions League when we needed a late own goal to beat them in January.
That we struggle to much against a ‘poor’ side was a concern. It transpired that Young Boys had just got their act together and were about to embark on what looked like a run to the Swiss title. Two weeks ago they had closed the gap on leaders Basel to three points with eight to play.
A draw at home to 11th placed Yverdon popped the bubble, however. That was followed by a 5-0 battering at Luzern. The eight point gap now looks beyond them.
As it stands, we will be fourth of five seeds in the Champions League playoff round. The preparatory work should be well underway.
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I think I’ll call it Wednesday!
As posted by AT on end of last blog. Remembering those lost.
https://x.com/CelticFC/status/1912079304097136927?s=19
That we struggle to much against a ‘poor’ side was a concern.
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I watched a different match to you, Paul. I recall us playing YB completely off the pitch, missing a penalty and passing up chance after chance. Yes we tapered off in the second half but thankfully Adam Idah came through for us.
Howdy Aipple.
Good article Paul
Respect also to Burnley78 who has been updating us regularly.
“The preparatory work should be well underway”
100%.
BTW – This may be in a minority view but I still believe that …
… when it comes to the Champions League Play Off stages?
.. the gap between seeded teams and ¾ of non seeded teams is marginal.
Would love to be seeded of course AND to get the luck of drawing the weakest non seed.
Default preparation should be for a hard tie against a decent team.
“decent” definition is intentional.
Not a pushover but not a top outfit either.
Beatable if we get it right.
An Dun – hear you.
I almost agree with Paul on YB.
Performance trajectory of our home games is interesting.
Again, just my opinion but I think there was a gradual but clear reduction.
Bratislava was a joy. We had zip and quality. Other than a 5 minute spell when they pulled a goal back and some “not again at this level?” doubts emerged, we aced it.
Leipzig was a great occasion. We didn’t sweep them away – they were too good for that – but the energy of the players AND the crowd as we worked towards a significant victory was telling.
(BTW – Leipzig were already damaged coming into that game but I think we broke them that night)
Bruges game we definitely dropped. Still a good performance and result but, had we been at the levels of the Leipzig game? We would have won.
YB game we dropped further still. Every team in Europe is decent and better than the standard we face weekly. If we’d reached Bruges game levels? Those nearlys An Dun mentioned would have resulted in goals in a comfortable 3-0 victory.
“The preparatory work should be well underway”
100% correct P67 and that means getting recruits in place ASAP. Not on the last day of the window, get them in so they understand BR’s system before the play offs!
Preparatory work should be underway?
Wishful thinking lhads. What recent evidence do we have that Celtic ever make plans for Europe?
If evidence exists i must have missed it.
Next question would be who is responsible for said plan?
B2B- agree re seeds and non seeds,I think the advantage is you get the 2nd leg at home
timmy7_noted
I share your scepticism, but to be fair players and agents like to hang on to see if they get better options
is there not a possible direct qualification to the league if results go our way regarding who wins europa ?
Back Brendan in the qualifiers, no scrambling about in the summer window he knows what he wants.
Get the cash out Celtic, no stash needed.
leftclicktic re: Howdy Aipple.
Back at you good sir!
timmy7_noted on 16th April 2025 12:46 pm
Preparatory work should be underway?
Wishful thinking lhads. What recent evidence do we have that Celtic ever make plans for Europe?
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Jota ? KT ?
The clue is in the name – ‘preparatory’ work. It means getting business done before the play off.
It means getting key targets in for preseason. Not signing players after the play offs or days before the play offs with no time whatsoever to bed in.
The Summer hysteria seems to start earlier every year.
One of the paradoxes of Celtics success is that the earlier the league is tied up the more time we have to hear about how poor our recruitment is and how important it is to replace the winners with better players as early as possible
A 5 month headache if you chose to pay attention
It means getting key targets in for preseason. Not signing players after the play offs or days before the play offs with no time whatsoever to bed in.
Jota ? KT ?
Preparatory work for the qualifiers means players signed in January.
KT and Jota in and selling our CF is not proper preparatory work, for what we need.
PREPARATORY WORK IS IT , other than the Cork game, what other pre-season schedule do we actually have ?
no foreging tournaments to make money ?
vale bhoy on 16th April 2025 1:22 pm
Preparatory work for the qualifiers means players signed in January.
KT and Jota in and selling our CF is not proper preparatory work, for what we need.
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I listened to a number of podcasts this last week.
Apparantely the squad who competed with Bayern, beat leipzig, scored against villa, got a draw in atlanta, found a star centre forward in Daizen, brought in Jota, have KT on a precontract, and could be treble winning in 6 weeks,
well needs at least 6 more quality additions because we lost to saint johnstone.
C40me- agree with that.
A throwaway comment of David Low’s a while ago made me chuckle then and now.
Every football manager he’d ever known was always just three players short of having the squad he needed.
🤭🤭🤭
We have one free scoring striker who may or may not hit the same heights next season , assuming we hang on to him in the first place . After that we have Idah who seems to be going backwards , Villa game excepted . A CF should certainly be high on the list in time for qualifiers .
timmy7_noted on 16th April 2025 12:46 pm
I feel at long last we are again taking European football seriously.
For too long we were treating it more of an inconvenience rather than treating it as the prize we get for domestic success. Resting players in Europe to accommodate a league game was far to prelevant.
We liked the money but disliked the required preparation.
I believe we are setting a domestic league record by coming first or second for 30 years.
Great domestic achievement, but damning European record.
Brendan knows, his own personal achievement will be determined by European results, indeed his next job will be determined likewise.
He knows that European football refreshes the parts that domestic football cannot achieve.
HH.
whisper it, but kyogo for us this season, occasional flashes of brilliance, but so unper-performing for most games, we did well to get that money for him, watching from afar, he was badly advised, made wrong choices and is a shadow of his foremer self.
i actually would not have him back now, and would prefer we go shopping in japan for the next crop of 23 year olds with potential.
i worry a wee bit about talent leaving, i dont care a jot about incoming, the squad we have should be capable of winning a playoff, i mean it doesnt actually happen till late august,
Back to Basics
I remember Liam Brady saying that Signing Stuart Slater was the last piece in his master plan jigsaw.
How did that work out ?
Preparatory work . . .
As always, much will depend on who is likely to leave. I would hope behind the scenes Maeda has been offered a bumper deal to keep him for another couple of seasons at least. I would be amazed if there is not serious interest in him from a team in a better league than the SPFL.
If Maeda was to leave, Idah has shown very little this season to place any faith in him as our no.1 striker. If BR thinks the same, we could be looking for two strikers before the qualifiers. I fear we are stuck with Idah, we will not get our money back on him.
Kuhn is another who may be sold though his form has dipped so dramatically he may find himself with few options. If he rediscovers his form then I’d be hoping we have him for another couple of seasons before selling him on. He and Jota, when on form, are as good as we could hope for. Yang and JF will be kept as back up for one more season I assume.
In the middle of the park, Reo is probably the only one that might move on. Can’t see Engels, Bernardo, Luke or Calmac going anywhere. We all know we need some muscle in the engine room. A ball winner and a leader. Hopefully this summer we’ll find one.
Defence? An upgrade in the CH position is still needed, as it has been for several years. CCV likely to remain the main man but Trusty and Scales come in and out of favour depending on which one made the most mistakes the week before. Neither quite good enough to nail down the position long term.
KT, AJ, AR and ? Only serious question is who will be backup LB.
Keepers are in place with Kasper holding down the jersey for one more year.
Kyogo has gone, he wanted to leave – move on.
We certainly need a replacement and a midfield enforcer.
I fear we are stuck with Idah, we will not get our money back on him.
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We will, if we choose to sell or the bhoy says let me go.
He scored 3 Champions league goals.
Has now scroed 5 in international games.
That is the benchmark for a valuation i would suggest.
People wanted us to spend big on transfers, weo go do that and people then complain we spent to much,
Give adam a run of starting games after the semi final. See how he gets on.
Would he also benefit form the full pre-season coachng that he didnt get last year ?
did i forget to mention he scored a cup final winning goal only may last year ?
GDT – yip.
Good headline at the time.
Poor Liam couldn’t complete the jigsaw no matter how many pieces he was handed.
Brendan is clearly more capable.
Regardless, I’d hoped we’d moved away from “rebuild” talk … much of which I consider to be lazy.
Forlorn hope clearly.
Have we now reached the point that stating the blindingly obvious… CL preparation means players in before the play offs is now deemed to be hysterical ?! 😂
A lot more on the recruitment this summer, if Brendan doesn’t get backed,this time next year we will be scratching about for a new manager
Kyogo was at his best with Jota and Abada on the wings,Jota back,linked with a million wingers,I would take him back if it’s an option
I am convinced something else made Kyogo leave scotland.
The haste to get away, but if you want to force yourself into the Japan national team, why not move back to Japan league.
As scottish champions we should not have to play in any qualifiers designed to boost the coffers of UEFA Moneyspinners Ltd. Let the spanish, italian, german, french and english leagues have their multi team representatives but only AFTER the scottish champs are included. Otherwise it is not a truly european champions league and therefore not worth winning. I don’t grudge the likes of Olympiacos their qualification for next season but UEFA are taking us for chumps ( copyright Big Jimmy ) instead of champs.
Bring him home
Adam Idah was and is a good signing.
It’s not Adam’s fault that we didn’t have the foresight to negotiate an option to buy when he won us the double.
Saint Stivs
Losing to St. Johnstone has zilch to do with our preparatory work.
Hopefully, that loss was a blip and we go on to win the treble but, to improve further in Europe and see off any possible hun challenge, we must be better prepared.
We needed to sign a CF in January (despite Maeda’s heroics) along with a combative MF player.
Other areas of the squad also need strengthening.
Hopefully we do that before pre-season.
It should have already been done.
Jota was part of a greater plan? You’re kidding yourself on. Also we’ve been trying to get a left back for at least 3 seasons, is that a plan?
I’ll be delighted to be proven wrong but I expect us to be grubbing around in the English loan market come the end of the summer and still be a lb short.
what is the preparatory work to be done ?
identify who you want to sign and make an offer ?
tell the selling club, the agent, the player, here is the date you must sign buy so we have the player in for pre-season ?
do we make the offers to all the players on our lists ? in the hope anyone signs on time ?
or do we have to wait on all the market conditions being satisfactory for all parties ?
just like everyone else.
if we dont let anyone go before the qualifier, and with jota and KT on board from day 1 pre season, then i believe we can take anyone who is in the playoffs.
ps, i believe in brendan, the scouts, the anaytics, tisdale all know who they want and at what price.
but that doesnt mean they will come for pre season.