Celtic podcaster John-Paul Mason has made a damning admission about the current state of the club, insisting that the Hoops are under-prepared ahead of next month’s Champions League qualifiers.
Ange Postecoglou’s side were recently drawn to face Danish champions FC Midtjylland in the second round of qualifying.
Celtic had been searching for a manager for over 100 days prior to Postecoglou’s arrival, following Neil Lennon’s resignation in the spring.
The first leg will be played in mid-July, meaning that the new manager has only a matter of weeks to prepare for the tie and more than likely only a couple of days to prepare the Celtic stars who are currently involved at Euro 2020.
Speaking on the A Celtic State of Mind podcast, Mason had this to say about Celtic’s current situation:
“I was reading some stuff yesterday, just saying how woefully unprepared we’re going to be going into a game of such magnitude against a team that, by all accounts from what I’ve read and what the guys were saying yesterday, Midtjylland are no walkovers, do you know what I mean? This is the worst prepared we’ve ever been for Champions League qualifiers.
“I know we’ve been badly prepared in the past. But we’ve never had the manager come in so late. We’ve never had the unrest in the camp in terms of players that want away. And just a general kind of trepidation over everything, the whole club. So, it’s not good timing and we knew it was going to happen.”
TIF Thoughts on Celtic’s current situation…
It’s fair to say the situation surrounding Celtic hasn’t been the most glamorous. However, with the appointment of Postecoglou, things are starting to look up. It will be a tough task for the Australian due to the commitment of many of his stars at Euro 2020 and the transfer speculation surrounding players such as Odsonne Edouard.
However, with pre-season starting this week, Celtic could be well prepared for their two-legged tie against tough opposition – though it appears a lack of organisation would not be totally surprising given the circumstances the club have going into the tie, not least finishing second last term, which has led to such an early start in the first place.