Technically, it could be argued that Celtic is in the Champions League Knockouts.
And there are certainly enough progress in that argument in the breathless aftermath of their skin-of-the-tetho-one-goal victory against the worst team in the competition.
However, it's just not true, right? They are in a play-off to get to the knockout rounds. The scream rounds, that is.
And in the midst of the rush to have Sainthood donated to Brendan Rodgers and Callum McGregor nominated as the next prime minister, perhaps that should be remembered.
Celtic has done well to secure a place in the top 24 of the new Look League system. There is no doubt that they have made progress in Europe this season – although, given the earlier reputation of the club as a punchbag for the Flotsam and Jetsam of the continent, the only way to be perfect.
However, the work has not yet been done. If we reach this stage, especially given the run of luminaires that came from the hat for Celtic, it feels more like a parcyh shooting than moving mountains.
For this campaign to be a real success – a real exercise in planting the flag after years of manacled to be kicked in a cave by people like the Sparta Prague and Maribor reserve team – they have to go one step further and It goes back with the elite. Mixing in the games that really make up.
This is not an attempt to be hard. It is not an attempt to belittle what this Celtic side has achieved.
Rodgers has certainly already fulfilled his most important performance indicators by taking the club to this point and by banking the extra £ 6.5 million prize money that is guaranteed the play-off round.
The 3-1 victory over RB Leipzig on MatchDay Four was the kind of characteristic victory that the manager needed. Yes, the Germans have also turned out to be a complete rans in the tournament-on 30th place with three measly points but they drove high in the Bundesliga at the time and the quality and intensity of Celtic's performance cannot be triggered. They were excellent.
The Backs-to-the-Wall 0-0 draw at Atalanta-Derde in Serie A and still title hopes also housed another side of the manager and his players. It showed that they can bury and defend when needed. It showed that they can slide into the siege mentality instead of being harassed by a foolish, Gung-Ho, attack philosophy. That is now officially the only domain of Ange Postecoglou.
What about the rest? Hmmmm. Slovan Bratislava, set aside during the opening evening, are, to say the least, Dugmeat – at the bottom at zero points together with young boys.
The 7-1 loss in Dortmund was a catastrophe, made to look all the worse since then by, for example, since then. Head coach Nuri Sahin naturally became 10th in the Bundesliga earlier in the week and in their worst form in almost 20 years.
The home stretching with Club Brugge? An important result, given that they were surpassed at some distance in the first half.
The scoreless draw in Dinamo Zagreb was meanwhile watching Paint Dry and last Tuesday's 1-0 win over young boys, Eked late thanks to a Freakish own goal, will hardly have sent shock waves over the planet.
The Swiss were hopeless. Yet it cost a great double salvation from Kasper Schmeichel Plus a considerable stop to keep the train on the track.
With five minutes to play, the Scoreline, the Saint-Germain of Paris, who came back from the dead to defeat Manchester City, Celtic was about to let the entire kit and Caboodle slip through their fingers.
Yes, the team looks tired lately. Yes, the authorities should really do more to help teams participate in UEFA competition instead of hindering them with an unnecessary winter schedule.
But Celtic really realized for Europe in the summer, where £ 25 million was only published on Arne Engels, Adam Idah and Auston Trusty.
Kieran Tierney is back on his way this month. As Jota is. And there will undoubtedly be a new Multi-Miljoen Center-Forward that also comes in the ranks, after the £ 10 million sale of Kyogo Furuhashi to Rennes.
And let it be said, what an amazing deal for a 30-year-old who agitated for an exit and whose best days seem to be behind him.
The team that will start the play-off round of next month will be stronger again. A bit of luck in the draw is of course required, but Rodgers has the advantage that the domestic title race is done and sprinkled. He has the opportunity to get new signs at speed and to manage the playing time of others whose legs feel the tension.
People fall over themselves this week to praise Celtic. You would think that they had landed a room probe on Saturn, given the eagerness to spread rose petals on their path to see a team that came out ninth of 12 in the Swiss Super League.
The truth, however, is that achieving this point should always have been considered a realistic ambition.
The points come from unexpected places in the course of the journey, but is it really such a big surprise that they are still alive in the competition prior to Wednesday to Aston Villa?
Nobody tries to play what happened here. Nobody uses Europe to defeat Celtic with a stick, because Rodgers claimed that everyone only wants to do a matter of months ago.
This is more about setting the sights of the club where they should be and where they should have been for a long time.
Make the last 16 for the first time in 12 years the play-off round or the last 24 and every question ever asked about the wisdom of Rodgers and Celtic is joining forces for a new twist to the merry-go-round. In Technicolor.
Forest must fill butland with regret
What a sliding door moment Nottingham Forest's bid of £ 5 million or so for Rangers -goalkeeper Jack Butland starts to appear last January.
The Ibrox club could have had a reasonable one, if not exactly blockbusting, a profit for a free transfer to help their clear financial problems and the player could have competed at the top of the English Premier League during a fairy -tale campaign under manager Nuno Espirito Santo .
Instead, he is in a position where he sold the sweaters against Celtic in a Scottish Cup final and he just beat the ball in his own net in a European game in Old Trafford before he has a final gasp winner through his legs.
Manager Philippe Clement has said so many crazy things during his term of office at Rangers that you lose everything, but a particularly inscrutable was the claim in the summer that everyone was for sale than Butland. He could not leave for every price.
Butland must also question his own wisdom by saying 'no' to Bos through his agent. At the time, he spoke that there was so much more for him to reach in Glasgow.
As long as he knew what he knows now that there is no money in the treasury and his manager tells the world that this is a long-term project about spending young players and avoiding another liquidation event instead of winning real trophies .
Not exactly what an sooner 32-year-old who recently hoped for a recall in England required.
The moral of the story seems clear to all those involved. When you work in Scotland, you cannot afford to set up your nose with decent offers. You hit – or rather, cash – while the iron is hot. Players and clubs.
Kettlewell has dug a huge hole for himself
For those of us in McDiarmid Park last weekend for Motherwell's Scottish Cup loss against St Johnstone, the hostility of traveling support towards their team and manager Stuart Kettewell brought a sharp intake of breath.
Kettlewell then dug a small back when it indicates that his players even became grief when they win and continue during the week when polishing the old chestnut game.
Listen, he can do what he likes. This is now much further than going with the man for rejecting the people who pay his wages.
In Motherwell, famous fan ownership, they effectively run the club. Ergo, Kettlewell has dug one hole here, okay.
And when the results really go on the slide, he will find a lot happy to bury him in it.
Comments