Ferencváros have already dissected us, and too many Celtic fans have decided this one doesn’t matter

This morning, Ferencvaros winger Marius Corbu told the world exactly how his side intend to beat Celtic on Thursday night.

He didn’t dress it up.

He didn’t trot out the usual respectful guff about a famous old club and a famous old stadium and leave it at that.

Corbu told us he has watched Sunday, and that he saw the same thing the rest of us saw.

Here is what the Ferencváros player had to say to the Daily Record.

Read it as a scouting report, because that is exactly what it is:

“We analysed in detail how Celtic build their attacks and when their full backs come forward and when there may be free space behind them.

“When we win the ball, we have to play forward quickly and accurately, because against such an opponent there are not many opportunities.”

Read that back one more time.

The full backs go forward, and there is free space behind them.

That is not some tactical masterstroke from a Hungarian goalkeeper.

That is a Ferencváros winger describing the second half at Ibrox to anybody who happened to miss it.

While we were being picked apart in Govan on Sunday, Ferencváros were sticking seven past somebody in the Hungarian Cup

And now they fancy this.

Fair enough, why wouldn’t they?

Corbu is only doing his job, and he’s doing it well.

Of course they fancy it.

Why on earth wouldn’t they?

They have had Denes Dibusz and Kristoffer Zachariassen in that dressing room all week telling the rest of them what Celtic Park sounds like.

Corbu has been sitting watching recordings of us for days.

He says they must not be afraid of the atmosphere, and on the evidence of Sunday, why would he be?

Last night on the Trinity Tims podcast, we went through the reason that space keeps appearing.

We brought ten players into this club in the summer window.

Ten.

And a good number of them do not fit the shape the manager is actually playing.

You can sign whoever you like, but if the bodies don’t match the system, somebody is going to be left isolated – and right now that somebody is whoever is filling in behind our full backs.

Corbu has spotted it from Budapest.

We’ve been watching it from the stands since August.

Losing this game badly should not be acceptable to anybody connected with Celtic Football Club

And yet look at the mood this week.

Half the support have already written Thursday off.

The Europa League doesn’t really matter, apparently.

It’s only the second tier, apparently.

We’ll take our doing and get on with the league, apparently.

Nuff said, apparently.

Since when did any football game that Celtic play in not matter?

Genuinely, when did that become an acceptable thing for a Celtic supporter to say out loud?

This is a club that treats its own history as a marketing asset every time there’s a retro strip to shift.

But a European group stage game at Celtic Park doesn’t matter?

We didn’t arrive at that on our own.

No, we were conditioned into it.

We have been told for years now that Europe is a bonus, that the money is the point, that the balance sheet is the achievement.

We get fed that line from within the club every single time we come up short on a European night.

And eventually enough people swallow it that lowered expectations start coming back out of the support’s own mouth.

And who benefits from a support that has already lowered the bar before kick off?

Not us.

It’s the people upstairs who never have to answer for a bad European night, because we’ve agreed in advance that it didn’t count.

That is what the board have actually built here.

Not a squad – a coping mechanism.

A heavy defeat on Thursday night is the worst possible preparation for the Ibrox side coming to Celtic Park on Sunday

Let me spell that one out, because it seems to be getting lost.

We have just lost a big game to them.

We have four days to do something about how this squad feels about itself.

The best possible way to prepare for facing that lot again is to go and win a European tie in front of 60,000 of our own.

Not that there will be 60,000 in attendance, such is the lack of interest in this one.

The worst possible way to prepare is to get opened up by Ferencváros in exactly the manner Corbu has just described in public.

You cannot lose two on the spin like that and walk out on Sunday as if nothing happened.

Confidence isn’t a tap you turn on when the fixture is important enough.

It is built, or it is drained, and Thursday night is where that gets decided.

The Ibrox side won a cup tie on Sunday, but they have no European football to look forward to

We do.

That is the bit far too many of us have stopped valuing.

Thursday night is a chance to remind this squad what Celtic Park is like when it decides to get behind something.

It’s a chance to go into Sunday with a result in the bank instead of an excuse.

And it’s a chance to stop handing Ferencvaros the game before a ball is kicked.

Corbu has done his homework on us.

The very least we can do is turn up and make him regret publishing it.

This one MATTERS.

And if you can’t get up for a European night at Celtic Park, what exactly are you here for?

To the believe the bullshit conditioning our bullshit board has instilled in you??

I’ll leave it at that.

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