OPINION
After two years of utter domination on the domestic stage, Celtic have already taken a step back in their progress and development by not qualifying for the Champions League group stages, and the noises coming out from the club’s stars highlight a worrying issue.
It had looked as though the Hoops were heading in the right direction under Brendan Rodgers, qualifying but finishing bottom of their group in his first year in charge before sitting third a year later, meaning they made the knockout round of the Europa League.
This season saw them fail to make even the play-off round of the qualifying stages, and they now head into the Europa League to battle for a place in the groups of the secondary continental competition.
Their defeat to AEK Athens, the Greek champions no less, has seen the Bhoys come under heavy fire from fans and pundits alike, and it has resulted in something of a backlash from star striker Leight Griffiths, who has urged people to look at the past two years and the success tasted under Rodgers.
He told the Daily Record: “People will jump on that bandwagon that Celtic’s in crisis, blah, blah, blah. But it’s been two defeats on the bounce for the first time since the manager took charge.
“That’s over two years now. As disappointed as we are to be going out of the Champions League that’s not bad is it?
“People might jump on it and say the squad’s not good enough and everything else, but it’s still the bulk of the squad that won the double treble which is an incredible feat. We’ve not had this kind of disappointment in a while and it’s hard to take.”
Now while Rodgers and his men deserve plaudits for their two treble winning seasons, the applause for those came at the end of the respective campaigns, and the focus should solely be on what is happening in the present.
It does not matter what happened two years, six months or even two weeks ago, the fact of the matter is that Celtic are out of the Champions League far too early, and that is simply not good enough for a club of their standards.
It seems as though Griffiths is resting on his laurels a bit here, when quite frankly much, much more was expected of the side this season.
If this is how the rest of the squad are approaching the matter then it has highlighted a worrying trend.
The saying goes ‘you are only as good as your last result’, but it seems that the Celtic players think their performances over the past two years make up for this bitterly disappointing defeat.