Perspective on Europe is a worry

Football is overwhelmingly a results business and results in football drive emotions to a level seldom seen in other areas of sport or business. All that emotion makes perspective elusively difficult. For example, how do you muster anything other than an emotional response to the 1-3 home defeat to Bodo/Glimt, coming, as it did, on the same day Newco won 2-4 in Dortmund.

The result was humiliating, another comfortable defeat in the return leg offered no consolation. Perspective was difficult to find. We laughed earlier in the season when Bodo battered Jose Mourinho’s Roma 6-1. After a poor qualifying campaign that saw them lose home and away to Legia Warsaw, before edging Kosovan and Lithuanian opponents by a single goal to reach the Conference League, Bodo found form.  But still, they were preseason when they faced Celtic.

They reached the quarter finals and again got the better of Roma at home, before a collapse at the Olympic Stadium. Roma disposed of Leicester City and are favourites to win the trophy in Tirana tonight, although Feyenoord have form overturning favourites in European finals.

The trauma of our European exit seems a distant memory; a league title win and the sun is shining on Celtic Park. Just as defeat makes perspective difficult, try telling an elated fan that they had better not get too carried away…..  Don’t get too carried away, we face existential risks next season.

Considering how Bodo/Glimt pushed Roma so hard, a win for Mourinho’s side would make me feel better about our season. Maybe I’m still trying to find some perspective for that awful 5-1 aggregate defeat in February. Not sure any result tonight will help.  Some end of season perspective has me shaken.