How many more European defeats must we endure before Martin O’Neill’s Celtic legend is burnt to ashes?

Celtic managed to scrape over the line yesterday against Hibernian in a lacklustre performance, against what was a lacklustre side.

3 points is 3 points, but I can’t help feeling that it was a performance that reflected how bipolar we’ve been since last Sunday week.

Compare and contrast yesterday to last Sunday, and then look at Thursday night last, and you catch my drift.

But there is a question rising from last Thursday’s Europa League defeat for Celtic , and it’s one I’m sure none of us wants to hear.

I won’t beat around the push, I’ll just get straight to it.

Outside the league campaign, are Celtic capable of winning any games in the Europa League campaign?

Well, based on all of the football we’ve played in Europe since LASK, I’d be inclined to think we are utterly incapable of winning any game in the Europa League.

When we go behind in any of these games, it seems to be lights out.

We have no answers.

Once upon a time, I used to marvel at the way all of the clubs in the Scottish Premiership outside ourselves and the Ibrox club consistently crashed and burned in the preliminary stages of European football.

Now I’ve resigned myself to the fact that we are on that level too.

Hell, the Ibrox side didn’t even make European group stage football this season, so it’s obvious how bad the decline in standards has been when it comes to Scottish participation in Europe.

The fact that we have allowed ourselves to descend to that level tells us all we need to know about the board’s ambition at Celtic

At the moment, it really seems like everything they touch just turns to shit.

And they revel in it, like pigs in the proverbial.

But here’s the thing, how many more defeats must we be subjected in Europe before they also allow Martin O’Neill’s legend to turn to shit?

Now, don’t get me wrong here, if Martin O’Neill wants to commit career Hari Kiri, that’s entirely his prerogative.

To me, it seems like he’s hell bent on that particular endeavour at the moment.

But if that happens, then the board must also accept their fair share of blame in that.

They are the ones who chose not to back O’Neill in the transfer window, and in some respects, his hands are tied because of that.

However, his continued insistence on playing players like Sebastian Tounekti and Oliver Sorensen is entirely on him

Thankfully, we didn’t see either player at Easter Road yesterday, but how is it that these players are being picked for European ties?

That reflects O’Neill’s view of Europe, if you ask me.

The board don’t force him to do that.

He can’t keep playing the same individuals, who then deliver the square root of f*** all, and then consider himself exempt from any blame when it achieves nothing but to compound a defeat.

What is then baffling is the fact that these players then don’t even get near the starting squad domestically.

Tounekti didn’t even make it onto the bench yesterday.

Sorensen was on it, but he didn’t get any minutes.

Telling us yesterday that the win against Hibernian was our ‘best win of the season’ was really an insult to any of us with intelligence

We know it wasn’t.

Martin knows it wasn’t too.

But coming off the back of a dismal defeat in Europe, he had to say something positive.

There’s a difference between saying it at the right time and the wrong time, though.

Yesterday wasn’t the day for that.

Admit it was a poor performance, we were lucky we got the 3 points, and move on.

Seeing what I saw yesterday, I can’t help feeling that we’re going to have much tougher away days in the League.

We should take 3 points off in form Dundee United on Wednesday night, but Falkirk away might prove a bit more tricky.

The League seems to be the priority now.

But how many more humiliating defeats must we endure in Europe?

When Bestiktas come to Celtic Park, are we capable of winning against them?

Based on our current European form, you would think not.

With every humiliating defeat, Martin O’Neill’s legend becomes more and more tarnished.

If he wants to end that perception, then he needs to start winning in European, as well as domestically.

Otherwise, his second stint will only be remembered for one thing.

He came in at the behest of the board to deliver domestic bliss.

Anything else was an after thought.

So, does Martin O’Neill want to be remembered for overseeing our brutal decline in Europe?

Well, I guess that’s up to him, isn’t it?

He could change that by taking Europe seriously.

But I don’t see that happening.

Do you?

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