Celtic sold short by absent large shareholder and hubristic board as Luke McCowan hung out to dry

At least that seemed the case at the end of a catastrophic night for Celtic against LASK in Linz on Tuesday. Ralston, Murray, Trusty and Scales. Ultimately, the names on the back of the jerseys of those playing in defence did matter. They screamed: not good enough at this level.

This is not a Champions League defence. It might not even be a Conference League defence. And yet it was the makeup of the Celtic rearguard at the end of a battering which the visitors were fortunate did not exceed five goals. Anyone know of any Scottish football crisis summits happening soon?

The midfielders sent on to try and wrest back some control were not to most Celtic fans’ satisfaction either. Reo Hatate is a good player but manager Martin O’Neill has clearly decided he’s not for him. Is he someone you want to be sending on to save your bacon?

We must, of course, mention Luke McCowan, a sprightly, all-action midfielder when he arrived at Celtic two years ago from Dundee. Now people seem to be surprised that he can’t adapt to the pace of a frantic Champions League night, having spent most of his Parkhead career warming the bench.

The statistics are nevertheless damning. McCowan lost possession more times than he retained it, including for the critical fifth goal from LASK that is estimated to have cost Celtic more than £25 million.

Of course, that isn’t all on McCowan. Indeed, very little of it is. Mistakes happen in football. But one wonders what the future holds for the boyhood fan of the club now that he’s been conveniently identified as the whipping bhoy?

Unless Celtic buy some more midfielders, he might be needed at some point on Saturday. Celtic are scheduled to play Falkirk. Unhelpfully given the circumstances, the fixture is at home.

Imagine the response of the crowd when and if McCowan is introduced as a substitute over the loudspeakers. The player has already had to delete his Instagram account due to the ferocity of the abuse he is receiving. Talk about being left to walk alone while others far more culpable remain out of sight.

Despite a few expensive signings, Celtic fans have been sold short by an absent large shareholder and a hubristic board. Who cares about succession planning, on the pitch and off it, when we can appoint a 74-year-old manager – after an unexplained delay – and probably still trump Rangers by winning the league and other domestic pots.

As noted by Gavin Noon of Scotland’s Coefficient, all 41 SPFL clubs have signed more players than Celtic in this summer’s transfer window to date. The Parkhead club have signed just four (Spartans are next with five). One of these signings, Haissem Hassan, was mysteriously left on the bench on Tuesday at the Raiffeisen Arena.

Of course, Celtic have invested far more in their squad than anyone else, yet they still resembled a mid-table Premiership side thrust, as if by mistake, into a critical Champions League qualifying night. As the late great Dolly Parton once said, “it takes a lot of money to look this cheap”.

Celtic have spent around £32m and yet still looked ill-equipped for the challenge, with Arne Engels perhaps the biggest miss. German midfielder Mika Baur has been signed to replace Hatate, a player who hasn’t even left yet. Meanwhile, Celtic went into their biggest match of the season with a large Engels-sized hole in the middle of the park.

Celtic suffered what has been described as a generational implosion in Upper Austria. In actual fact it’s the worst for several generations – since Jimmy McGrory's side blew a 3-0 European Cup-Winners’ Cup semi-final lead in Budapest in 1964, going down 4-0 to M.T.K. Celtic were aiming to become just the third British side to reach a European final.

The Scotsman correspondent John Rafferty boldly revealed in his piece on the morning of the game that he and some colleagues had already booked “to go to the final on May 13 in Brussels, and we do not feel in the least reckless”. The following morning Rafferty was reporting on a “shattering disaster” on the banks of the Danube.

Europe’s second longest river snakes through as many as ten countries so it’s perhaps not completely outlandish that Celtic were again stationed on the banks of the Danube for this latest disintegration. The Parkhead side were European novices at the time of this first collapse in the broiling heat of Budapest. They went on to win the European Cup just three years later.

A worn-out looking O’Neill spoke in Linz about wanting to make amends in the Europa League, similar to how his Celtic side did in 2002-03 when reaching the Uefa Cup final after letting a two-goal lead over Basel slip in Champions League qualifying.

Confirmation of Celtic’s Europa League opponents comes on Friday. LASK’s name being pulled out of the Champions League hat rather than their own on Thursday will sting. But what does Celtic FC represent now? Who are they? Does the name under the badge on the front of the shirt even mean anything any longer? Not at European football’s top table, it seems.

Even among mid-ranking clubs, Celtic have become the team they all want to get. Enjoy the atmosphere at Parkhead, then do the business at home. Celtic are facilitating a form of football tourism.

This is now six times in succession that the Parkhead side have failed to prevail in Champions League qualifying, against AEK Athens, Cluj, Ferencvaros, Midtjylland, Kairat Almaty and LASK. AEK Athens is maybe just about acceptable. The others? Not so. A 100 per cent failure rate? Even 50 per cent should be deemed not good enough for a club the size of Celtic. Falling short on the continent now seems hardwired into the team. Season after season, the song remains the same.