Losing to inferior opposition from a lesser football nation in Champions League qualifying and missing out on the riches which participants in Europe’s elite club competition bank was not a new experience for Celtic this week.
The Parkhead club, defeated in the play-off by Kairat in Kazakhstan on Tuesday night following a penalty shootout, have exited the competition before the group stages after being unable to overcome AEK Athens, Cluj, Ferencvaros, Malmo, Maribor and Midtjylland over the years.
The feelings of despair in the Central Stadium, then, were all too familiar.
But it is the reasons for the failure – the same old inability to acquire new players in key positions early in the summer transfer window and integrate them into the side so they are flying at the beginning of the new campaign – which really disappointed and frustrated their manager Brendan Rodgers.
That is something which Rodgers, who had expected like-for-like replacements for Kyogo Furuhashi and Nicolas Kuhn to be brought in when the striker and the winger departed for combined fees of £27m, is adamant need not be a recurring theme at the Scottish champions.
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The Northern Irishman, who has quickly turned his attention to the William Hill Premiership game against Rangers at Ibrox tomorrow and their Europa League league phase games against Roma, Feyenoord, Braga, Red Star Belgrade, Sturm Graz, Midtjylland, Utrecht and Bologna, believes the long-standing issue needs to be addressed.
“Listen, there's so many reasons why transfers don't get done and don't get done in time,” he said. “I just know, as a football manager and coach, that when you bring in a player on July 1, he has time to adapt. Not just to football life, but his family as well.
“By the time you get to your games, your competitive games, your games that matter, they're settled and ready. You saw the example of the young guy at Brugge [Carlos Forbs] there during the week. He is a £6m winger and he was signed early. He comes in, does his work and makes a difference.
“It's not about investment, because this club will invest. The club's super well run, the investment is there. We need to look at the timing of the investment. Does that go back to recruitment? Does it go back to identification? All these different facets have to be examined.
“But what I do know is we have to be better at it, because this is a crucial period of time. We need to have every single chance to be the best version of Celtic that we can be. We have to discuss that. I’d be very hopeful (it can change going forward).”
“We've got a major shareholder in Dermot [Desmond] who's a super intelligent guy,” he said. “We've got a board of directors who bleed for the club. They want the club to do well. So everyone here is connected. All this talk about total disconnection? It's not what I see and I hear, it couldn't be further from the truth.
“Every single guy here - me, the board members, Dermot - we love Celtic and want Celtic to be the very, very best. There's a business model that you see works so well. But I want to try and ensure the football model works equally as well.
“So it's fluent and agile and we keep ahead of the game. So when we lose players we're not in this cycle of waiting, waiting, waiting, standing still and then missing out on the competitions that we want to be in. So that's the idea. Hopefully over the coming months we can do that.”
It was pointed out to Rodgers that he had bemoaned Celtic waiting until the final days, the final hours even, of the transfer window to conduct much of their transfer business at this time last year and nothing had happened. He acknowledged this was a problem long before he returned to the East End of Glasgow two years ago.
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“Listen, if you looked at what Ange said or what Neil Lennon said it would probably be around about the same,” he said. “That's what I'm saying. It's a trend, we need to understand that.
“We certainly need to understand that from a football context, because you want to be as well equipped as you possibly can. Like I said, it's not about investment, the club will invest. It's all about timely investment. I think that it's most definitely what we need to look at.”
Rodgers started Kieran Tierney at left-back and Benjamin Nygren on the right of midfield in Almaty – two players who only arrived at Parkhead during the summer – so he is convinced that his objective can be achieved.
"It's clearly possible, very possible,” he said. “You can get players in, it can be done. The recruitment and signing of players never stops. When the January window closes, you're already planning for the summer. You have an idea of who might go, who might move on.
Celtic’s supporters were furious at their heroes’ agonising Champions League exit and there have been calls for the board to be cleared out and even Europa League ticket packages to be boycotted until directors depart. Rodgers, though, would like everyone at Parkhead to work together to achieve more success at home and abroad.
"We have to move on and make this season a really good season,” he said. “I don't want any negativity around the club because there's been enough of that. The job now is for us all to connect.
“The team, the supporters, everyone needs to push forward in the same direction. Yeah, we have to look at this behind the scenes. There's absolutely no doubt we have to look at this behind the scenes. But we can't be frustrated and look backwards. I have to drive the team forward and look forward to the challenges ahead.”
