[St Charles Owl]

Good points SCO but do the fans not deserve the opportunity of reaching the Champions League group stages every year with the prospect of knockout stage every other year. Years ago European clubs did not like the prospect of meeting Celtic in knockout competitions but now they just see them as another run of the mill team. The fear factor is gone,if the board don't do something about it quickly it might never return.

I am sure there are fans of clubs across Europe who deserve that opportunity, including Celtic. I would imagine that in terms of crowd size and possibly turnover Celtic must be one of the biggest teams in the qualification rounds to start with? The fact they have to qualify so early is also a product of Scottish teams fairly miserable performances in Europe for many years now that has seen Scotland slide down the rankings and first lose their 2nd CL spot and now see the Champions having to qualify. I think the fear factor of Scottish football as a whole has greatly diminished over the past 20-30 years so yes it needs Celtic to at least reach the group stages but it also needs the other teams who qualify for Europe to do better in the Europa League. Its good to see Hibs and Rangers still in the competition and hopefully both can get through, but its a shame that Aberdeen drew Burnley so early in the competition instead of one of the lesser teams.

I get the feeling that what the fans want at Celtic Park is not exactly in line with what the board are wiling to finance!! Its a bit like the Arsenal situation, they spent over a decade being happy with getting top 4 and getting into the CL without ever spending what they needed to to actually challenge consistently for the PL title. I think the board are happy to win the league every year and will make sure they at least achieve that, after that I think they are hoping that that is enough to see them reach the group stages. This season proved it wasn't enough so I would expect a bit of a splash for next season to push them a bit closer but I can't see the board fully committing to the CL as the group stages is the likely pinnacle at the moment and to get further consistently would require a lot more money.