THE Champions League play-off round has dealt Celtic elation and despair in equal measure over the years.
Their players and supporters have celebrated wildly in the past as Helsingborgs, Shakhter Karagandy, Hapoel Be’er Sheva and Astana have been overcome during the final stage of the qualifying process.
They have, too, been left bereft as Arsenal, Maribor and Malmo have dashed their hopes of joining the European elite in the competition proper just when a place alongside the likes of Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Real Madrid was within touching distance.
What fate awaits the Glasgow club in the Kazakhstan capital Almaty next week after an insipid display and desperately disappointing goalless draw against Kairat at Parkhead last night? It is impossible to say.
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A couple of things, though, are absolutely certain. The Scottish champions will have to play better, a lot, lot better, in the Central Stadium next week to reach the league phase for the second season running. And their manager will need to deploy Daizen Maeda, not Adam Idah, up front for the visitors to prevail.
The Republic of Ireland internationalist showed what he is capable of in the Champions League last season; he netted against Slovan Bratislava at home and pitched in with a double against Aston Villa away. Those strikes helped him to amass a haul of 20 goals in the 2024/25 campaign.
Idah, though, still has to convince Celtic fans, who know a top class striker when they see one, that he has the necessary mentality and sufficient quality to lead the line for the former European Cup winners both domestically and on the continent. His personal showing last night certainly did nothing to convince them. He is not at his best at the moment.
To be fair to the 24-year-old, this was a collective off night for the hosts. Nobody wearing a green and white hooped jersey really acquitted themselves especially well. The marksman received next to no ammunition to work with.
The stats at the end of the 90 minutes suggested that the hosts had managed to get two shots on target. It was, however, difficult to remember Kairat goalkeeper Alexander Zarutskiy or his second half replacement Temirlan Anarbekov being seriously tested during regulation time.
Will Idah justify the £9m which was shelled out to secure his services last summer and bank his employers a £40m pay day? He will be lucky to be involved given how he is currently performing in attack. He lasted 45 minutes before being unceremoniously hooked by his manager at half-time.
Celtic were far livelier with Maeda through the middle and Yang Hyun-jun out wide. Yes, the former missed a chance to clinch the victory in injury-time when he was clean through on goal and only had the keeper to beat. The winger, just as he had in the Scottish Cup final against Aberdeen at Hampden in May, fired straight at his rival.
Nevertheless, Rodgers was pleased with the impact which both the substitution and positional change had and it will be a surprise if he doesn’t repeat the experiment this weekend against Livingston in the Premiership fixture in the East End of Glasgow and in the Kairat rematch.
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“It didn't quite go for him [Idah] in the first half,” said the Northern Irishman. “I wanted a little bit more activity in and around the box, because I felt we could get up there. Adam's a good boy, he's an honest boy. He hasn't quite started how he would have liked. But in games like these here I can't afford to wait.”
The fans turned on the Parkhead board as the game wore on and sang “sack the board”, “Lawwell, Lawwell get to f***” and “Michael, Michael, get to f***” – chants which were directed at chairman Peter and chief executive Nicholson.
They feel, with some justification it has to be said, that directors could have done more to bring in reinforcements ahead of this crucial double header. Kyogo Furuhashi, who left in January, and Nicolas Kuhn, who exited last month, have not been adequately replaced during this transfer window despite the £27m which was pocketed when they departed.
It is still early in the new season and only three competitive games have been played. Calum McGregor and his team mates will gel and improve. But they appear to have regressed since beating Bratislava, RB Leipzig and Young Boys and drawing with Atalanta, Club Brugge and Dinamo Zagreb in the league phase last term and pushing Bayern close in the knockout phase play-off.
Rodgers, who is out of contract at the end of the season, has stated the hierarchy need to show that they match his ambition before he agrees to sign a new agreement and extend his stay at his boyhood heroes. If they are unable to go through next week and end up in the Europa League it will be a retrograde step. He may hold those upstairs responsible for the failure. The fans certainly will.
He had centre-half Auston Trusty [£6m], midfielders Arne Engels [£11m], Paolo Bernardo [£3.5m] and Luke McCowan [£1m] on the bench and Idah [£9m] up front in midweek. He listed new forwards Callum Osmand and Shin Yamada among the replacements.
The Celtic business model – sign raw young players with potential, give them game time at home and abroad, sell them on for a substantial profit after a few seasons – continues to be a source of considerable frustration for many despite the enviable financial stability which the Parkhead club has long enjoyed.
The refusal to loosen the purse strings, free up some of their massive cash reserves and bring in like-for-like replacements for Furuhashi and Kuhn ahead of the Champions League play-off games is unforgiveable for them.
But Kairat have spent a grand total of £280,000 on players in the past two years while Celtic have lavished in excess of £40m. They are 315th in the UEFA club coefficient rankings behind the likes of Crusaders of Northern Ireland, Floriana of Malta and Magpies of Gibraltar. There can, then, be no excuses for failing to secure league phase football. Brendan Rodgers and Celtic must deliver.
