The players that watched Kyogo and Kuhn get sold realised that they could be next, that they were more valued on the Balance Sheet than on the team sheet, that Nicholson would rather sell players than build a team.
Over the next three weeks Celtic will publish their accounts for the year to 30 June 2025 with turnover in or around £150m on the back of five Champions League matches bolstered by selling Matt O’Riley and Kyogo Furuhashi, the fee for Nicolas Kuhn is on the 25/26 ledger.
Home wins over Panathinaikos, Viktoria Plzen and Alloa haven’t papered over the cracks, even the Gullible & Deluded fans can see through the soundbites delivered by the bearded former MK Dons boss who has refused to slip into the brogues associated with his job.
No Champions League, a depleted squad, an elite manager working his notice and a board and CEO with nothing to say about anything – fans have reached breaking point.
For now, domestic dominance continues to mask these flaws. But as the new Champions League format ratchets up both the financial rewards and the competitive bar, Celtic’s model will face its most severe test. In Kazakhstan it was exposed and failed miserably.
Arrogance and complacency were at the centre of Celtic’s Champions League exit to Kairat Almaty.He takes no pleasure in donning the ‘I told You So’ t-shirt but Chris Suttpn echoed the concerns of supporters all through the summer as he warned of the dangers of Celtic’s so called strategy.While others…
This Celtic squad would have been eaten alive in the Champions League, it would have made for brutal viewing, the Europa League will be slightly more forgiving but all eight opponents will be ambitious and sense demoralised opponents where the manager is working his notice.
I think we all, every player, every coach, manager, wants to work at the highest level of club football, and for us that is the Champions League.
I think that we need to improve the squad. There’s clarity around that for a long time and we see that, you know, I think supporters see that. We certainly do in football. We need to improve.
All of that from a club that plays in the Jan Breyde Stadium with a capacity of just 29,000 seats. Less than half the capacity of Celtic Park, at every match Celtic are bringing in substantially more income than the Belgian side.