Paul Hartley was part of a Celtic team that qualified from a Champions League group containing AC Milan, Benfica and Shakhtar Donetsk.
A year later he was in the side that failed to progress from a quartet that included Manchester United, Villareal and Aalborg. Fair to say then that the former Hoops star is a good judge of what lies ahead as Ange Postecoglou ’s troops prepare to take their first steps back into the group stage of the competition for five years.
And when he warns that the challenge facing them will be even more difficult now than in his time then it’s time to listen. Not only has the financial gap between Europe’s haves and have nots expanded in the 15 years since Hartley was strutting his stuff in Gordon Strachan’s side. But the game in general has moved on too with the top sides producing the kind of fast, free-flowing, attacking football that makes you scared to blink in case you miss it.
