Celtic manager Gordon Strachan pleaded for some realism from the Celtic fans after they were comprehensively beaten 2-0 by Tottenham in the Feyenoord tournament on Friday.
The goals in the game were scored by Darren Bent and debutant David Bentley, who cost a reported £32.5 million between them.
Strachan highlighted the financial gap between his team, the Scottish champions and a team that finished eleventh in England’s Premier League.
“We’re a bit threadbare right now. The players I have here are all I’ve got. Bobo Balde is here and is looking to move on and we have two young kids. We really need to get players back fit. They have Luka Modric, David Bentley, Dimitar Berbatov – then the left-back Gareth Bale comes on and he’s worth £12m. It’s easy for them to progress when they have money to spend. We don’t have that money and we have to do our best with what we’ve got and make players better. What are our limits? Do you get half a Bentley, a quarter of Bentley? Do we get Bentley’s right leg?”
Strachan made the point that the Tottenham manager might just struggle a little if he had a similar budget to that he worked with in Scotland.
“If you said to Juande Ramos to get rid of all his top players and give him ‘X’ amount and say get to the Champions League last eight he would just laugh at you,” he suggested.
“We know that. It’s nothing new and we’re not complaining. We understand it and hope everyone else understands it.”
Strachan is absolutely right and for Celtic and their deadly rivals Rangers to achieve anything at all in European competition is quite remarkable.
(Source – BBC)
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