Simon Jordan has called Celtic's Champions League collapse "appallingly cowardly."
The Scottish champions failed to maintain a 4-0 aggregate lead against LASK, ultimately losing 5-4 after extra time and dropping into the Europa League. Despite this, Celtic manager Martin O'Neill took responsibility for the loss.
However, talkSPORT pundit Jordan believes the blame lies with the players. He said, "It was an appallingly cowardly performance.
"The goal that started the rot was an unforgivable error from one of their players [Benjamin Nygren], just knocking it into space where one of their players can go in and score a goal — which brought them [LASK] back from the dead."
"I thought it was a dreadful performance."
He dismissed claims that Celtic were fortunate to have such a strong lead after the first leg. He argued that LASK simply failed to capitalise on their opportunities. He added, "All this nonsense about them getting lucky in the first leg, I don’t hear that narrative being spun out when they won 3-0.
"All of a sudden, 'They got lucky in the first leg, LASK did have a lot of shots on goal. Their expected xG was three.' They didn’t score three; they scored zero."
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Jordan, who has worked alongside O'Neill, believes the manager will be privately furious but will protect his squad in public. He said, "Martin will be privately seething, realising that the players have let him down.
"But what he will do as an old-school manager is deflect from the players and make it about himself.
"There’s nothing about what Martin did in that dugout that could legislate for a capitulation of that order."
Jordan also criticised Celtic's summer trading, suggesting that the substitutes were not up to the task as the match slipped away. He said, "In this instance, you look at the performance, Martin taking the blame… this is not about Martin O’Neill, it’s about the players on the field.
"They didn’t buy this player; they sold £36million worth of players and only bought in £32m. And the players off the bench didn’t look like they had the wherewithal.
"But it shouldn’t have got to the stage where it got to extra time and players coming off the bench looked lost. They were just cowardly.
"They were 4-0 up in a Champions League qualifier, the game done, they handed them back the initiative, giving them one goal, and they absolutely capitulated."
