After Munich, Celtic in £40.3 million Champions League folly

However, the Scottish champions were unable to replicate that feat this term, falling at the qualifying play-off hurdle to Kazakhstani outfit Kairat Almaty despite a significant disparity in resources.

Although the Hoops remain involved in continental competition and are preparing for a Europa League knockout playoff encounter with VfB Stuttgart next Thursday, participation in Europe’s elite tournament remains the ultimate objective.

Last season’s run is still viewed as a major achievement, with Celtic pushing Bayern Munich close in the knockout rounds before exiting in dramatic fashion following Alphonso Davies’ heartbreaking equaliser in the Allianz Arena last February.

UEFA’s latest financial report has now detailed the prize money distributed to competing clubs.

Under the guidance of Brendan Rodgers (lest we forget) Celtic received £16.2 million for reaching the league phase, along with £7.6 million for advancing to the knockout stage. A further £11.8 million was awarded through the value pillar, which reflects individual club coefficient rankings.

An additional £4.7 million was secured based on their final league position, taking the overall sum earned to approximately £40.3 million.

After reaching these heights rather than back the manager Celtic forced Paul Tisdale project signings such as Hayato Inamura and Shin Yamada on the manager while selling Nicolas Kuhn and failing to replace Kyogo for an entire calendar year. They then forced Rodgers out for his outspoken (but entirely reasonable) comments about the need for Celtic to recruit to compete in the Champions League.

They then replaced him with a French PE teacher while playing Johnny Kenny as the Celtic centre forward while banning The Celtic Star for nothing at all.

In other news, Champions League winner Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has reflected on his dream debut at Paradise on Wednesday night. He said: “Those are the moments you dream of, playing at places like this and being able to impact the game, help the team, and create moments like that. More importantly, it helped us get the win.”

“I was watching the game and saw some of the spaces that were opening up in and around the box, especially when we had the ball out wide and were able to cross. I was looking at areas where I could get into.”

“The coaching staff and the manager gave me a lot of confidence. When you come on, that is your job, to make an impact, especially in a game where it is 1-1 and you want to go and score the winner.”

The Englishman added: “Luckily, tonight, that moment fell to me, and I could help. The other night, it fell to Junior [Adamu], and he did the same thing. It is a great characteristic for a team to be able to do that right until the end.”

“Throughout my career, the teams where we have done well, those are the things that we had to fall back on at times when it was not going so well.”

Don’t miss Sandman’s take on Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain’s sensational Celtic debut in his Definitive Ratings from the vital 2-1 win over Livingston which you can read HERE.

Meanwhile The Celtic Star this morning posted our exclusive interview with former Celtic manager Gordon Strachan who gives his thoughts on the title race and looks back to Celtic coming from behind to win the title in dramatic circumstances back in 2008. A lesson or two for the current Celtic side in all of this.

WGS also names his top three signings for Celtic and while one is abundantly obvious I bet you can’t guess who the other two are! No cheating!

You can read our exclusive interview with Gordon Strachan HERE…

Exclusive Interview – Gordon Strachan talks to The Celtic Star

Read The Celtic Star’s Exclusive Interview with former Celtic manager Gordon Strachan on how Celtic ‘clawed back’ title in 2008 and lessons for this season’s title chase. He names his three best signings for Celtic, one is a given but the other two might surprise you! And much more too.

Get your copy of Majic, Stan and the King of Japan – The Story of Gordon Strachan’s first season as Celtic manager from Celtic Star Books for only £10 plus P&P and your book will be personally signed by the author …