- Celtic are out of the Champions League after a play-off defeat to Kairat Almaty
- The tie was goalless after 210 minutes of football – and went to penalties
- Rodgers could only watch in anguish as his side missed three spot-kicks
After failing to beat Kairat Almaty and allowing Champions League football to slip from their grasp, the chickens have well and truly come home to roost for Celtic.
Brendan Rodgers made it clear last week that he had warned the club that a debacle like this could be in the post unless the club invested in the playing squad.
But Michael Nicholson and Peter Lawwell, the chief executive and chairman, took a £40million gamble – and it backfired in spectacular fashion.
They sent Rodgers into these fixtures against the Kazakhs hopelessly ill-equipped. Celtic couldn’t score a single goal across 210 minutes of football against very limited opposition.
Daizen Maeda has scored one goal in six matches so far this season. He looks a shadow of the player who won Player of the Year honours only a few months ago at the end of last term.
Brendan Rodgers had warned that his squad needed reinforcing for the play-off
Celtic’s players can’t believe it after their shootout defeat in Kazakhstan
Celtic goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel is crestfallen after his side’s defeat
Kieran Tierney is already looking like a romantic luxury, a player who has failed to complete 90 minutes in the five matches he has started so far this season.
Reo Hatate looks quiet and didn’t influence things at all across the two matches against Kairat. But none of this is to blame for Celtic’s failure to progress.
The only people who are to blame is the board. To allow the quality of the playing squad to regress to this extent, it is neglect on an industrial level.
Rodgers would be well within his rights to quit. The club have shown no ambition or desire to build on reaching the knockout stage last season.
What Rodgers wants and what the Celtic board want are two very different things. They are fundamentally unsuited to each other.
We saw it during his first spell in Glasgow and we are now seeing it all over again. He was lambasted by fans for leaving to join Leicester in 2019.
But would anyone really blame him now if he walked away?
