Charlie Nicholas insists any scrutiny over Celtic's Champions League campaign should be levelled at the board - not Ange Postecoglou.
The Premiership champions were eliminated from the competition after four group stage matches last week as they were beaten at home by RB Leipzig, but they can still salvage a spot in the Europa League by finishing third. In the aftermath, Postecoglou bristled at questions over his team's suitability for competing at the top level, asserting that anyone claiming Celtic didn't deserve to be there had an "agenda".
The questions reminded Nicholas of what previously faced the likes of Gordon Strachan, Neil Lennon and Brendan Rodgers. The pundit believes such concern is valid but reckons it's being directed at the wrong target as he claimed it's the men at the very top who should be explaining how Celtic can go to the next level on the continent, namely by backing Postecoglou in the transfer market. Nicholas wrote in his Scottish Daily Express column: "Celtic's Champions League campaign this season may have produced more plaudits than points but it's time the powers-that-be give their manager a fighting chance to really compete.
"Ange Postecoglou can't turn his team into Champions League conquerors overnight and I've a bit of understanding and support for him after he had been fighting critics in recent weeks. It's the same criticism the likes of Gordon Strachan, Neil Lennon and even Brendan Rodgers faced when it came to Euro competition and I always felt the criticism should have gone to the board. The questions were - 'Where are you trying to get to? What is the ambition?' - because Lennon and Rodgers were winning easy titles.
"For the most part they weren't playing against anybody. They were receiving gifts. My anger and frustration was always the same.When are you going to get ambitious? That is why I have full support for Ange because he has the determination to turn Celtic into a consistent Champions League team.
"The bottom line is the Aussie boss has been buying players to win the Scottish Premiership. The real big signings were forced upon him, the likes of Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers and his big budget was spent on those two players, as Brendan Rodgers did with signing Odsonne Edouard.
"I would say RB Leipzig are a better team than Celtic but with such an ambitious manager in Ange I want to know what the next level is he can get to. Of course, with only one point from the four games Celtic can't qualify but they have certainly given Real Madrid, Leipzig and Shakhtar a game so far."
