It will not have been lost on Celtic fans this weekend as Ange Postecoglou took a look around the centre circle and allowed himself a moment to take it all after the win over Manchester United that the Spurs fans – who adopted their song for the Greek-Australian – seem happy enough to have been proven wrong.
And that’s just two league games in.
As Celtic toiled against Kilmarnock in a turgid and disjointed display there remains an inarguable sense that they are weaker now than they were at the end of last season as Postecoglou signed off on the back of a treble.
With a couple of weeks yet remaining in the transfer window the expectancy now for Celtic fans is not just that players will be brought in but players of a certain ilk will arrive.
Certainly, the post-match reaction from Brendan Rodgers would leave little interpretation of what “quality players” means.
The evidence from the opening couple of games so far is that it a squad well short on what will be required to compete on a duel front domestically and in Europe.
What is equally difficult to ignore is just how flat Celtic seem.
In truth, some of that was evident in the latter months of last season.
But with Jota caught up in a bizarre situation as he looks to be on his way out of Al-Ittihad after just a month at the club, would Celtic be a consideration?
He wouldn’t solve all the problems but he may well just offer a spark that the club seem to be missing.
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