Dermot Desmond’s 2020 comments about Celtic and Europe come back to haunt majority shareholder

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Celtic’s embarrassing Champions League exit to Kairat Almaty will be felt for the rest of the season.

An overreactive opening statement? We certainly don’t think so. If Brendan Rodgers had to hand pick a team for Celtic to face in the Champions League play-off, it would be a side ranked 311th in UEFA’s rankings.

After enjoying three seasons in the Champions League proper, Celtic supporters wake up this morning knowing that their side will slip into UEFA’s second-tier competition as the Europa League beckons.

Whilst the Celtic team, Brendan Rodgers and the Parkhead board are firmly in the fans’ crosshairs, what Dermot Desmond said in 2020 on where he saw the club in 2025 has come back to bite the majority shareholder.

• READ MORE: Five things learned as Celtic lose to Kairat Almaty on penalties and drop into Europa League

Dermot Desmond said ‘Europe is so important’ for Celtic

Desmond took in a lengthy interview at the start of the COVID season and what Celtic’s majority shareholder said then about the Parkhead club in Europe has come back to haunt the Irish billionaire.

In an interview with The Athletic in September 2020, Desmond said, “Europe is so important as a yardstick of our football progression.

“On a sporting level, I think the Celtic team we have now [in 2020] is as good as at any time in the last 25 years, no doubt, and that’s even without a player like Henrik Larsson.

“If you asked me if the Celtic team today would beat the one that reached (the 2003 UEFA Cup final in) Seville, I’d say, ‘Yes’.

What would he say now about this Celtic team, we wonder?

Dermot Desmond’s 2025 Celtic ‘vision’ looks embarrassing now

But it gets worse. When asked what his vision for Celtic in 2025 was five years ago, Dermot replied, “I’d like to be able to say that in five years’ time our team is better than any of the great teams that were led by Martin, Gordon, Brendan and Lenny.”

What say you now, Dermot? The Celtic board have sold off the best of the squad that took Bayern Munich to extra-time seven months ago and have failed to replace them.

This team, right now, cannot hold a candle to any of those sides Desmond mentions so it will be interesting to hear what the Celtic executive thinks now after that embarrassment in Kairat last night.