Celtic board must go after LASK humiliation – this is the final straw
Six failed qualifying campaigns since 2017 and another unfinished squad have left Celtic facing serious questions over the leadership at Parkhead.
Phillip Cooney 
(left to right) Interium Chairman Brian Wilson, Non Executive Director Dermot Desmond and Michael Nicholson Chief Executive Officer of Celtic during the William Hill Premiership match at Celtic Park, Glasgow 16/05/2026 ============================================= Use the following embed code to publish this image online: <smartframe-embed customer-id="e8c3ce70f1ad837bdffb21e2453272b6" image-id="XhXP7H6qdzOJ" style="width: 100%;display: inline-flex;max-width: 7046px;aspect-ratio: 7046/4697"></smartframe-embed> More info: at https://smartframe.io/embedding-support/
Celtic board must go. After what happened in Austria, there can be no more excuses and no more hiding places.
Celtic have somehow crashed out of the Champions League after losing 5-1 to LASK following extra time.
Martin O’Neill’s side travelled to Austria with a 3-0 advantage. Callum McGregor then scored after 21 minutes to put Celtic 4-0 ahead on aggregate.
From there, Celtic collapsed.
LASK scored five times, including the winner in extra time, to complete an extraordinary 5-4 aggregate turnaround.
It was humiliating. However, this cannot simply be dumped at the manager’s door.
The Celtic board have to carry enormous responsibility for this.
Celtic board must go after another qualifying failure
They knew these Champions League qualifiers were coming months ago.
There was no surprise. There was no unexpected fixture suddenly dropped into the calendar.
Yet Celtic still approached the biggest games of the summer with an unfinished squad.
Only three summer signings started in Austria: Kasper Høgh, Camilo Durán and Mika Baur.
Then the lack of options became painfully obvious.
Kieran Tierney was replaced after 70 minutes. Colby Donovan followed shortly afterwards. Cameron Carter-Vickers was also taken off at 90 minutes.
That meant three of Celtic’s changes involved defenders.
By the time extra time arrived, O’Neill had no opportunity to turn towards attacking options including Haissem Hassan, James Forrest or Callum Osmand.
That is what happens when a squad is not properly prepared for the biggest games.
O’Neill needed ammunition. He needed quality, strength and genuine depth before these ties.
Instead, Celtic gambled again.
Celtic board’s Champions League record is damning
The pattern is impossible to ignore.
Celtic last successfully negotiated Champions League qualifying against Astana in 2017.
Since then came AEK Athens in 2018, CFR Cluj in 2019, Ferencváros in 2020 and Midtjylland in 2021.
Kairat Almaty followed last season.
Now LASK can be added to the list.
Six qualifying campaigns since Astana. Six failures.
That is not bad luck. It is a pattern.
Kairat should have been the final warning. Celtic went out last season after failing to score across 210 minutes.
Surely that embarrassment should have produced a completely different approach this summer?
Apparently not.
Dermot Desmond and Michael Nicholson have had enough chances
Money cannot seriously be presented as an excuse.
Sky Sports lists Celtic’s four fee-paying summer arrivals at approximately £32.8million combined.
Meanwhile, the reported sales of Arne Engels, Daizen Maeda and Luis Palma alone amount to around £35.5million.
That is before considering any money received through undisclosed deals.
So this is not about demanding reckless spending.
It is about planning.
Celtic knew Engels was leaving. They knew the areas that required strengthening. They knew precisely when these Champions League matches would arrive.
The players should take responsibility for an appalling collapse in Austria. O’Neill will also know Celtic should never lose a four-goal aggregate advantage.
However, the wider failure belongs above the manager.
Dermot Desmond, Michael Nicholson and those responsible for Celtic’s football strategy have had enough chances.
Sell players. Wait. Gamble on qualification. React afterwards.
It has happened too often.
Celtic require modern leadership which plans ahead rather than waiting until disaster strikes.
After Kairat and now this extraordinary LASK humiliation, enough is enough.
The Celtic board must go.
This has to be the final straw.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Celtic lost 5-1 after extra time and went out 5-4 on aggregate despite once leading the tie 4-0.
- Three defensive substitutions severely restricted Martin O’Neill’s attacking options.
- Celtic have now failed in six consecutive Champions League qualifying campaigns they have entered since 2017.
- Reported major sales this summer already exceed the headline fees paid for Celtic’s four permanent fee-paying signings.
- The repeated failure to complete the squad before Champions League qualifiers raises serious questions over Celtic’s leadership and planning.
Useless from the top to the bottom
Total embarrassment
I hope the board get run out of town and take crap witj them
Give it a rest, ffs! Celtic lost a FOUR goal lead! Can’t you count?? No team at any level loses that sort of lead. Look at the goals we conceded. Shut up and take your shite blog to the local refuse collection depot.
The Board? Nothing about the players, or the tactics? We were 4-0 up and ultimately surrendered it. The coaching staff got this wrong, the tactics were off and the substitutions were off. Watch the game back and look at all the individual errors from players that should know better, have done better. CalMac was probably right, ‘scared’ to go win the game. We didn’t stick, nor did we twist – we were some ineffective tactic in between. We invited pressure in that second half, didn’t change formation to suit the change in momentum and got what we deserved. Are new players needed? Yes, but to surrender a 4-0 lead with the squad we do have shouldn’t have happened. I won’t accept any, “if only we had another player like…” or “but if we had only done this…”. Ifs and Buts… the reality was we had a 4-0 advantage and squandered it. Europa League it is. Get the new defence/midfield players in and get the 2 CL proven STs up top together ffs. Both of them isolated and starved in a 2nd leg CL qualifier that we led 4-0 at one point.
Totally agree with Paul above. This was a tactical disaster more than ably assisted by some woefully weak defending and amateur lapses by players you think should know better. We need to take our medicine today and for a long time to come. This side is not a Champions League side. If it was, we’d be in it. I look through that whole side last night and would struggle to give an individual pass marks on the night. That’s unacceptable in any game never mind one of that magnitude. Our great MON rightly gets the plaudits when things go right, but he and his team got this one spectacularly wrong. We had almost a week to plan this after last week’s ‘tight’ game and we ended up playing the same game, playing straight into their strengths and our weaknesses. Our luck was all used up last week. On a more worrying note, Calmac is not imo the man to be tasked with trying to take us into the CL next season. A great servant, no doubt, but time catches up with us all. I’d have a lot of respect for him if he acknowledged his time is done here (like he did with Scotland) and he went off to Saudi or wherever to earn a lucrative payday. The challenge of finding his successor or altering our style of play so as not to be so dependent on someone like him should start now. We all used to rightly take the mickey out of Tavpen when he’d be repeatedly spurting the same nonsense after the latest collapse from the Orcs in pursuit of any trophy. We’ve already started down that road. Time for it to stop and take a different direction, in midfield in particular. At worst, he should be phased out over this season. I could go through that whole team and nitpick with all of them, starting obviously with Nygren, but I’m only going to give Trusty a special mention. SPl players and managers know he’s weak and target him week in week out easily. He was with Sheffield United for a reason. His display was shocking at best last night. To not have sought an upgrade on him in close season is unforgiveable. The board will get it in the neck for this, but that collapse last night was self-inflicted. Congratulations to Lask. They wanted it more, were individually and collectively better than us over both legs, and if they weren’t, we’d be looking forward to the CL draw today instead of them.
And with the 40 million gone the board will now hunker down,and anyone looking for permanent signings before deadline day can put the welcome mats away,it will be 3 or 4 loans at best.This is is how the suits roll.Tgey will be relatively cool with last night’s outcome.Just means the manager will have to make do.Groundhog day.
So Europa it is then,and the vastly reduced earnings it offers.The suits will of course be relatively cool with this.It just means the manager will have to make do with what he has with just maybe 2 or 3 loans on deadline day.Groundhog day,season after season.So those looking for any more 5 or 6 million players coming in this window can put the welcome mats away,won’t happen.Fail to prepare prepare to fail.Not another penny.