Resigning ourselves to the fact that Celtic are incapable of competing at Champions League level is exactly what the board want. It’s called conditioning…

Everywhere across Celtic social media yesterday and today, there is an air of resignation, an air of total defeat, and an air of apathy.

Celtic fans have started to believe that the Champions League is beyond us.

They’ve started to feel as if we don’t deserve to be there.

And after last night, who could blame them?

But to accept that, you then have to accept that clubs with half or less than our resources, stadiums less than a third the size of Celtic Park, and teams that cost a fraction to put together, do deserve to be there?

Make sense of that if you can?!

I am not one of those who shares those beliefs.

Nor will I ever be.

A club of our size, our stature, and our reputation, deserves to be at the very top table of European football.

We should be there every season, without fail.

The Champions League is a much less enriched place without our presence in it.

Because clubs like Celtic bring something magical to that competition, and it is sadly lacking without it.

A board that cared about the reputation of our club would ensure that every resource available was used to ensure our presence in Europe’s top tier competition every season.

As the song goes, ‘you may call me a dreamer’, but this is not a dream.

It is a reality that is very easily attainable under the correct level of upper management required to attain it.

We don’t have the correct level of upper management required, and under the current regime, we never will.

There are rumours doing the rounds that Ross Desmond is about to become the next Celtic Chairman.

Just think about that.

As if it wasn’t bad enough having Dermot Desmond in power at the club, his son could now get a position which effectively makes him his father’s right hand man.

Two Desmond’s for the price of one, as it were.

As if the events of Tuesday night weren’t hard enough to swallow, we could also be facing into this.

Desmond Jnr was used to convey his father’s statement at the last farcical AGM, a statement which reeked of contempt for the very people who plough their hard earned money into Celtic season, after season.

Now there is a chance we could be dealing with that on a regular basis.

It couldn’t get much worse, could it?

On top of this, all the dreams we had about a squad rebuild were shattered in conjunction with our exit from the Champions League in Linz.

Bhoycie wrote an excellent article last night revealing that the board had planned to spend another £20 million in the transfer market.

The obvious caveat to that being that Celtic qualified for the Champions League.

I’d suggest you read Bhoycie’s article because it properly challenges the utterly incomprehensible thought process behind this way of operating.

Why wait to spend that £20 million on strengthening the squad, when the board had long since banked those funds between season ticket sale, and operating in a transfer surplus?

It was better to send Martin O’Neill and the team into their qualifier with one hand tied behind the manager’s back, was it?

But, as with a Casino, and the way the house never loses, the Celtic board never loses.

The system is rigged in their favour to ensure they never do.

But we the fans, always do.

Season after season, our emotional and financial investment is rewarded with mediocrity.

Mediocrity like you had the misfortune to witness last Tuesday evening.

Instead of demanding and seeing the change that should come about as a result of an earth shattering, detrimental loss as that, we accept it.

We try to console ourselves with the idea of the Europa League.

In order to become acceptant of that, we tell ourselves that the Europa Leaguer is our level.

We even imagine that we might do well in this competition because we’ve convinced ourselves that this is our level.

We think because Martin O’Neill took us to a UEFA Cup final 23 years, that maybe, just maybe he could do it again.

Then we ignore the fact that this board has stifled us so much, we have never progressed beyond the last 16 of any European competition since the glory days of 2003.

While clinging to these past glories, we continue to ignore the elephant in the room, which is the board.

An elephant that has become so large and overbearing, that we’ve become resigned to the fact it can never be moved.

Under any circumstances.

So instead, we are content to sit and scramble for the crumbs they throw at us.

Because we accept that this is all we’ve got, that it’s all we’ll ever get.

The board, on the other hand, will content themselves with the fact there is a Glasgow Derby double header just around the corner.

Win both of those fixtures, and all will be forgiven.

Tuesday night’s cock up will become but a distant memory.

You can always rely on the distraction of the O** F*** to occupy the thoughts of the braindead peasantry.

This is, after all, our bread and butter, isn’t it?

No, it’s their bread and butter, not ours.

It’s the yardstick they measure themselves by, and they have conditioned us to accept that this is our lot.

When the most aware and awake of us know we could, and should be doing so much better.

That we, the fanbase, deserve so much better in return for our unwavering love and dedication to this football club.

Because they are not football people.

Accountants, politicians, vulture capitalists, and lawyers do not understand football.

They do not understand that the repercussions of last Tuesday night could be far reaching.

They do not understand how devastating the psychological impact of a loss like that could be on the players who experienced it.

Nor do they care.

All they care about is the bottom line, and the money in the club’s bank account.

I can assure you that when Michael Nicholson awoke on Wednesday morning, the first thing that entered his head was self-preservation.

The maintenance, at all costs, of his £17,000 per week lifestyle.

The humiliating loss to LASK was not to the forefront of his mind.

He looked in the mirror and reassured himself that if he could survive all of what happened last year, then he could absolutely survive what happened in Linz the previous night.

Self-preservation at all costs.

That is all that matters to each and every member of the Celtic board.

But as I alluded to earlier, the repercussions of Tuesday night’s loss could be far reaching.

They could easily reach the 13th and the 20th of September.

You see, if that O** F*** shield that they hide behind was ripped away, and we lost both of those fixtures against the Ibrox side?

Then, that would well and truly expose the folly of last Tuesday night.

Unfortunately, it may take something like that to stir an already docile, apathetic, and worn out fanbase into life.

Because they have conditioned us into accepting their mediocrity.

And we don’t seem to have the energy to fight it any more.

The only way that happens is if circumstances so bad come about, it radicalises the entire fanbase.

For that to happen, things will have to get exceptionally bad.

But I’ll leave you with this question.

If Tuesday evening’s utter capitulation could not radicalise us, what will?

The board relies on the fact that they can push anything on us, and we’ll accept it.

Hell, we’ve even accepted Tuesday night now.

Until that changes, we’re right where they want us.

Conditioned to tolerate and accept mediocrity.

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