![\"Celtic's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_Kairat-Almaty-v-Celtic-FC-UEFA-Champions-League-Play-offs-Round-First-Leg.jpg\")
Celtic’s Adam Idah, Arne Engels, Callum McGregor and Luke McCowan look dejected at full time (Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\nThe Hoops’ money men are in the firing line after the humbling playoff defeat to Kairat Almaty<\/p>\n
07:43, 27 Aug 2025Updated 07:44, 27 Aug 2025<\/p>\n
Celtic’s Adam Idah, Arne Engels, Callum McGregor and Luke McCowan look dejected at full time (Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n
It was a calamitous end to the Champions League<\/a> campaign in Kazakhstan for Celtic – and now the post-mortem ramps up a notch.<\/p>\n Minnows Kairat Almaty frustrated the Hoops through 210 goalless minutes before banking the \u00a340million jackpot in Europe’s elite competition in the penalty shoot out.<\/p>\n Adam Idah, Luke McCowan and Daizen Maeda <\/a>all missed from the spot as Kairat progressed 3-2<\/a> to become the first side from their country to reach Europe’s premier competition.<\/p>\n And while Brendan Rodgers will be pulling apart the game in his mind on the 3500-mile journey back to Glasgow, the pundits have already started their analysis.<\/p>\n Fingers are being pointed at the board, the players and the boss after the nightmare exit – Record Sport <\/strong>takes a look at what has been said.<\/p>\n Martin O’Neill<\/p>\n \u201cCeltic, it\u2019s their own fault. They are out of a competition they should be in.<\/p>\n \u201cThey haven\u2019t done enough over the two games. We had the Maeda moment, he should score the goal. But there was never a sustained six or seven minutes where they put the opposition under real pressure. It just never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I stepped into Celtic, not that I expected to win the European Cup, but that\u2019s what you aspire to. That\u2019s what Celtic football club is built on.\u201d<\/p>\n John Collins<\/p>\n “I think every Celtic supporter, and every board member, will be watching this thinking ‘we should have had two forward players in before this tie’.<\/p>\n “There was a lack of creativity in the final third, set-plays were poor, not enough movement so pressure is on. Everybody in the whole country is shocked Celtic haven’t recruited at the top of the pitch.<\/p>\n “Every single fan says the same thing – we need another winger with pace, we need another striker since they sold Kyogo, and I think the recruitment department and the board should have delivered to the manager.<\/p>\n “He should have had the talent in before this game. I’m sure they tried, but not hard enough. They should have had at least two bodies in before this.”<\/p>\n Aiden McGeady<\/p>\n “The performances were not good enough. Ultimately it goes back down to forward planning. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.<\/p>\n “It’s been a very difficult watch over the two legs. The quality is not there. If Celtic had got through tonight they would have been very lucky to get through. This team shouldn’t be relying on that with the quality that they’ve got.<\/p>\n “You don’t want to be called honest as a player, especially not if you play for Celtic. That was the biggest thing I took away from what Brendan Rodgers said.<\/p>\n “Honesty and endeavour, you get that with anybody who plays football. You need more than that at Champions League level.”<\/p>\n Alan Brazil<\/p>\n “It’s probably the worst two legs of a game that I have seen Celtic play. It wasn’t just last night – at Celtic Park they were diabolical, they were terrible. It wasn’t until the end they looked better than the opposition – it was just rubbish.<\/p>\n “I tell you now, Maeda, something is wrong with him. I think he wants away. Celtic go to Ibrox at the weekend, and I tell you, I am not confident. I wouldn’t just blame Maeda, I think all round Celtic were rank.”<\/p>\n Gabby Agbonlahor<\/p>\n “Celtic are a selling club – they have sold their best players over the years. If you are a Celtic fan you are thinking ‘we had a good go last season; won the league comfortably, had a good go at the Champions League, why aren’t we investing? Why are we selling Kuhn? Why did Kyogo go? Why haven’t we replaced these players?’<\/p>\n “You look at the team that finished last night and you think, where do you go? If I was Brendan I would have serious thoughts about carrying on.”<\/p>\n Stiylian Petrov<\/p>\n “The penalties are a flip of a coin – anything can happen. But overall, I think Kairat deserved to go through. There will be a lot more pressure now about transfers. I think Celtic and the board should learn from that – nothing is given.<\/p>\n You have to go, you have to win and perform, and make sure you go through to the next stage. Sometimes, you need more than previous success.”<\/p>\n Mark Wilson<\/p>\n “There will be accusations that the Celtic board gambled on the players that they have got to get them through to the Champions League, and it’s backfired dramatically. They drop into the Europa League, and they have been very, very poor and created very little over 210 minutes.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hoops’ money men are in the firing line after the humbling playoff defeat to Kairat Almaty 07:43,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[10108,2352,2629,2628,7184,1614,10110,131659,1638,79,10107,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-377193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-adam-idah","9":"tag-brendan-rodgers","10":"tag-callum-mcgregor","11":"tag-celtic-fc","12":"tag-celtic-transfer-news","13":"tag-champions-league","14":"tag-daizen-maeda","15":"tag-luke-mccowan","16":"tag-scottish-premiership","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-transfer-talk","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115099883623248455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Celtic's](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1756284732_595_0_Kairat-Almaty-v-Celtic-FC-UEFA-Champions-League-Play-offs-Round-First-Leg.jpg\")
Celtic’s Luke McCowan (L) and Manager Brendan Rodgers look dejected (Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n