Celtic PLC leave Brendan Rodgers hamstrung ahead of Champions League tie

For once, it was starting to look so rosy. Just a few weeks ago, 13,000 fans turned out to greet Brendan Rodgers, unusually, in recent times, an acquisition that somebody else wanted.

He gave a model performance as he was unveiled to the fans, sounding like a Celtic man who actually knew quite a bit about football.

Great!

The season ticket money started to roll in, we settled down to watch Euro 2016, confident that the club had learned lessons from its dealings in the past and we would start to see real improvement - we even signed a promising striker!

Moussa Dembélé is the right age, showed good form last season and is on the way up.

And then...

Not much.

Anyone who saw the two legs against Red Imps in the Champions League qualifier could be forgiven for thinking that Ronny Deila was still in charge of Celtic.

That is not intended as any reflection on Brendan Rodgers: he has only had two competitive games. But, this time last year, we were talking about déjà vu from the season before.

Now, the feeling is very similar.

Yes  we had a lot of possession against the champions of Gibraltar but the 3-1 aggregate and performances over the two legs told us something: that we don't have nearly enough good players.

It's hard to say if they are talentless as whatever skills several may possess have been concealed under a veil of gutlessness.

Of those who were with Celtic last year, only Griffiths, Tierney, McGregor, Sviatchenko and Roberts have looked up to the mark in the early games, this season.

And Roberts - the most talented footballer at the club - isn't even our player.

Dembélé and Ajer look to be good signings but the rest require either rapid improvement or economy class plane tickets.

We could each pick our favourite targets but James Forrest epitomises everything that has been wrong with Celtic for at least two years.

We know he can play because we’ve seen him. The trouble is that he rarely does. If a winger who was touted as a £10m player three years ago can't make something happen against a part-time team, it's time for Forrest to run - anywhere you want but just not in a Celtic jersey.

He is one of many culprits.

But Celtic go to Kazakhstan to play Astana in a few days time and, on recent form - without having shored up glaring weaknesses -  must be second favourites.

We retain hope and will try to summon some confidence before before Wednesday but the sad reality is that few of us believe we will be comfortable winners.

If we do, we can look forward. If not, we'll know who to blame.

The same people as last time - and it's not Ronny Deila.
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