As a couple of thousand or so Celtic supporters slowly pour into the sweltering centre of Belgrade, there is understandably a greater thirst among them for the local Jelen Pivo brew than there is for the start of this Europa League campaign.
After the relative success of last season’s Champions League campaign, frankly, the Celtic fanbase now have larger appetites than UEFA’s second-tier competition. If they hadn’t seen such riches, and all that.
There has to be a reluctant acceptance though that through the mismanagement of the summer transfer window, that is the level where they may currently belong.
If that. This will be no soft landing for Celtic in the Rajko Mitic Stadium against Serbian league leaders Crvena Zvezda, or Red Star Belgrade, in old Dinar.
The parallels between the two clubs are uncanny. Both dominate their domestic league, with Red Star winning the last eight titles in succession. But both have suffered huge Champions League qualifying disappointments this summer, with the Serbs crashing out at the same stage as Celtic to unfancied Cypriot side Pafos FC.
The chat from the taxi driver bringing me into the city from the airport late on Monday evening could have come from straight a Celtic supporting Glasgow cabbie, but for the accent. His team were ‘rubbish’. It was not enough to just win their domestic league. Their Champions League exit was ‘shameful’. Perhaps, the Red Star fans will hold aloft banners tearing into their own board before kick-off.
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Still, they are scoring goals for fun in the league, hitting 30 in just seven matches. Celtic will have to be on their mettle, and it is now up to the team and to manager Brendan Rodgers to put the off-field dramas of the summer behind them and whet their appetite for this season once more.
The reasons for the thousands of tickets that remain unsold for Celtic’s first home match of this campaign against Braga go beyond simple apathy for the competition. Many are withholding their money on a point of principal as a protest against the men who run their club, and their lack of ambition to truly compete in Europe.
If they can compete in the Europa League though, it may well provide a spark to a season that badly needs it, and pique the interest of fans again into Celtic’s exploits on the continent.
The fans are entitled to their continuing demonstrations. As they showed at Firhill on Sunday, their backing for the team was undiminished, and a separate issue entirely to the ire they poured towards Michael Nicholson et al, whose collective gaze was fixed on their phones during the pre-match protest in the same way you do when a steamer staggers on the last train home and sits across from you.
The big question following the end of the transfer window was whether Brendan Rodgers himself though would be able to put his own anger to one side and refocus his efforts on a season that threatens to descend into mediocrity.
The signs are, that he has done just that. He has had his say, and then some. On the signings, the fans are on his side. On the ‘anonymous’ mole briefing against him and accusing him of engineering his own exit, he has taken a flamethrower to them.
Now, it seems he has drawn a line under it. But Rodgers gritting his teeth and making the most of the situation should not be mistaken for the Celtic manager settling for mediocrity, even if that is what dropping into the Europa League represents for many of the support.
Rather, Rodgers will now try to save Celtic’s season being drowned in it. Because just as a deep run in this competition could be the thing that gets the juices flowing once more, a humbling here in the Serbian capital this evening could have the opposite effect. What a fall from grace it would be for the team that came within a whisker of eliminating Bayern Munich in the Allianz Arena back in February to find themselves struggling in this relatively poor relation of a tournament.
It is an indication, and an indictment, of the way that Celtic have managed their squad since that you really aren’t sure which way it will go.
Some fans have in fact become so disillusioned by the current situation that they are all for writing the Europa League off to preserve their domestic dominance, fearing that their lop-sided roster can’t cope with the demands of battling it out on four fronts.
It is true that a couple of injuries in attacking areas could see this Celtic team in a right old pickle, with seemingly the only thing standing between them and the sort of blunt displays they produced against Kairat Almaty being an injury to either the exciting Sebastian Tounekti or Kelechi Iheanacho, who has shown glimpses that he may not be the write-off that many feared upon his arrival.
Still, that’s all good in theory. In practice, a good chunk of Celtic supporters have spent their hard-earned on shlepping it over here, and the least they deserve is a team that is all in, even if they fear their board may not be.
Even if it would be in spite of the club’s strategy rather than because of it, this could still be a successful season for Celtic. This isn’t the Champions League, but the Europa League can still play a major part in making that so.
Maybe then, Istanbul, where this season’s final will be played, will enter Celtic folklore just as Seville has. Or maybe, Belgrade will enter their hall of infamy alongside the likes of Bratislava.
Until we see this Celtic side tomorrow night, I don’t know where I would put my money. Except of course, with the temperature knocking around the 30-degree mark, into the till of a local hostelry for some of those Jelen Pivos.
The fear is that we all may be needing them, and not just because of the weather.
