MUCH has been said and written about the exploits of Celtic, Dundee United, Hearts, Motherwell and Rangers in Europe this season in recent days and not very much of it, it is fair to say, has been especially positive or complimentary.
The Conference League, Europa League and Champions League losses to Sligo Rovers, AZ Alkmaar, Zurich, Fiorentina, Istanbul Basaksehir, Real Madrid, Ajax and Liverpool have been branded shameful, humiliating, disgraceful, inept and naïve by commentators. As for the online remarks from supporters? They could never be reprinted in a family newspaper.
Criticism of players, managers and directors even has been widespread and scathing. Fans, scribes and pundits have debated what has gone wrong at length and offered myriad potential solutions. There have been demands for heads to roll. In a couple of cases they have.
Yet, the difficulties which Scottish clubs face in continental competition in 2022 was neatly summed up by Robbie Neilson in a single succinct sentence after his Hearts team had been defeated by Fiorentina at Tynecastle earlier this month.
The red carding of his young centre half Lewis Neilson for a “last man” foul on opposition forward Luca Jovic early in the second-half had killed off the slender hopes the capital club, who were trailing 2-0 down at the time, had of staging a comeback.
Neilson, though, recognised just how challenging an outing it had been for his namesake and refused to castigate the promising but inexperienced defender following the 3-0 loss. “We had a 19-year-old kid playing against a £55m striker from Real Madrid,” he said.
That a team in the Conference League, the third tier of the European game, had a player who had once commanded a fee which was nearly five times as much as the most expensive signing in the history of the Scottish game cost drove home just what teams from this country are up against when they play overseas adversaries.
What hope do Hearts have of getting a result against foreign rivals who can call on individuals who have previously been purchased for an eight figure sum? Or even Celtic or Rangers for that matter?
Sure, they have all punched above their weight in the past and recorded victories over sides from major football nations against all the odds. See Rangers in the Europa League last season. But the financial gulf between the rich and the rest is getting wider every year. The task facing our representatives have is increasingly arduous.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst and his players were savaged after their record 7-1 defeat to Liverpool at Ibrox earlier this month. But Leon King, an 18-year-old who had played fewer than 20 games at senior level, was deployed at centre half against Roberto Firmino, Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota, Mo Salah, who collectively cost just shy of £200m.
It is not unreasonable to expect a team from these shores to at least make life difficult for top Dutch, English, French, German, Portuguese or Spanish opposition despite their significantly smaller transfer budgets and age bills. Rangers’ showing against Liverpool was certainly unacceptable.
Still, there has to a touch of realism and an appreciation of what is possible from onlookers. Do Alloa Athletic fans expect the Indodrill Stadium minnows to make it through to the latter stages of the Scottish Cup every year?
The Champions League group standings heading into the final round of games next week tell a story; the top two places in the eight sections are occupied by four English clubs, three German clubs, three Italian clubs, three Portuguese clubs, one Belgium club, one French club and one Spanish club.
Participants from Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Israel, not just those from Scotland, have all toiled.
Club Brugge securing their place in the last 16 has been used by some as a stick to hit Celtic and Rangers with.
However, the Jupiler Pro League clubs bank three times as much from their broadcasting deal as their cinch Premiership counterparts. Brugge manager Carl Hoefkens spent just shy of £30m strengthening his squad this summer. He lavished almost £14m on Ukrainian striker Roman Yarmechuk. This, too, is the first time in 16 attempts that the Flemish outfit have made it through to the knockout rounds.
There have been claims that the Champions League is a competition which is now too tough for Celtic and Rangers to feature in and suggestions they should focus on the Europa League or even the Conference League in future.
That, though, would be a grave error. They must, regardless of how exacting it proves and how vicious the fallout is to any failures, always aspire to reach the highest stage they can.
Cameron Carter-Vickers, Callum McGregor, Greg Taylor, Matt O’Riley, Leon King, Ryan Jack, Ridvan Yilmaz, Scott Wright, Lawrence Shankland, Barrie McKay and Lewis Neilson will learn far more from coming up against Luka Modric, Jordan Henderson and Luca Jovic than they will facing any domestic foe.
With a bit of luck, they will improve as a consequence, give better accounts of themselves both individually and collectively going forward and avoid the flak in future.
