Celtic stuff their pockets with more than just Champions League cash on night with only one misstep – Keith Jackson

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers
-Credit: (Image: PA)


That's the trouble with trying to manage expectations. Every now and then your team goes and spoils it all by doing something stupid like scoring five goals in a Champions League opener.

So, as a result of a result which has sent Celtic’s hopes and aspirations sky rocketing, Brendan Rodgers must now find a way of getting heads out of clouds and feet back on the ground as he strives to underpin his club’s notoriously shaky credentials on the European stage. Which, after all, is a very serious business indeed.

The going rate for a win in UEFA’s freshly beefed up competition is around £1.76m. And Rodgers has taken that cheque to the bank already on the back of a blistering opening night performance against Bratislava. But not even the high rollers in Nyon can put a price on a good time. Nor, for that matter, on the value of restoring reputations.

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Celtic filled their pockets with all of the above on Wednesday night which is why confidence levels around Glasgow’s east end are already soaring, just one game into the new league phase. Even before a ball had been kicked on Wednesday night one fan contacted Record Sport's new online show, Hotline Live, predicting that Celtic will go ‘all the way’ in this season’s competition.

Presumably he spent Thursday morning booking up flights and accommodation for the final in Munich on May 31 next year. By stuffing five goals past the Slovaks, Scotland’s champions ended matchday one sitting in second position in a 36 team table, topped only by Vincent Kompany’s Bayern who thumped nine in against Dinamo Zagreb.

That’s why Rodgers cracked a joke about stopping the competition immediately and heading straight to the Allianz in Bavaria. OK, granted, it didn’t land all that well inside the room but so what? It was about the only thing the manager didn’t get right on a night which brought Celtic’s self respect rushing back into town, along with a dizzying surge of soaring ambitions.

Suddenly, there will be those out there who believe a place in the top eight might not be beyond Celtic’s limits - thus avoiding the need for a play-off round en route into the last 16. And that’s why it might be wise to take a deep breath for the time being and hold on firmly to a sense of perspective. Because this is where things are likely to become a great deal more demanding now that a reality check is looming over the horizon.

Celtic Fans do 'the huddle'
Celtic Fans do 'the huddle'

Next up is a trip to face Borussia Dortmund in Germany in October, then onto Bergamo where last season’s Europa League champions Atalanta will be lying in wait. And that means Celtic are more than likely to be stuck on the three point mark until bonfire night, when RB Leipzig will bring the fireworks to Parkhead.

And this is probably when we’ll all discover if Rodgers and Celtic really are ready to light this tournament up this season. Or not.

Throughout it all, though, no-one should lose sight of the target which the manager set for his players over the summer. From the outset, he has fixed the focus on securing a place somewhere above the 12 sides left at the bottom of the table, in order to give Celtic a shot at making it through to the knock-out rounds.

Yes, back in the real world, they may come from a place where second is last. But, in this rarefied environment, 24th will do just fine, thank you very much. There’s no shame attached to keeping things anchored in reality either. And nor should it dampen the fireball of enthusiasm for this latest journey because Celtic’s supporters have every reason to be excited about what Rodgers is attempting to build on their behalf.

For the first time at any point over his two spells at the helm, the Irishman has succeeded in forcing the hand of his superiors into adequately equipping him for the rigours still to come on their travels. Celtic’s squad is now heaving with precisely the kind of quality he’s been crying out for since returning to the job more than 12 months ago.

More encouraging still, the late rush of expensive talent added before the transfer market closed at the beginning of this month, came at a time when the team was already beginning to motor very impressively without them.

In other words, Celtic do appear to be ready to move up through the gears even though, as things stood, they were already leaving the rest of Scottish football in their slipstream.

A chasm has opened up between the squad that Rodgers has put in place and the one which Rangers are trying to cobble together with comparative odds and ends on the other side of the city. And, with more of UEFA’s millions cascading into the Parkhead vault, that enormous gap is only going to widen further indefinitely - or at least for so long as Rodgers continues to wield his influence over the men in charge of looking after the pursestrings.

Given the extent of this financial gulf, for the time being there is now little or no requirement for Celtic’s top brass to spend lavishly in order to protect the club’s domestic dominance. But it’s not about that any more.

On the contrary, Rodgers has cast his sights much further afield and on Wednesday night he took a significant first step towards his intended destination of a place in the new look play-offs.

Yes, the road there is likely to get very bumpy, very quickly and Celtic cannot realistically be expected to run before they can walk. But managing those expectations just got a little bit more difficult than even Rodgers may have imagined.