Hibs have taken the mantle from Hearts for the most embarrassing result of the week by a Scottish club in Europe.
With a defeat against Kosovan minnows Malisheva – who lost 9-0 to Icelandic side Vikingur this time last year – they have left their European hopes in jeopardy.
Humiliations like this have become an extremely familiar tale in Scottish football, and Celtic are one of many guilty parties.
So why has the league as a whole become one of, if not the most underperforming in the continent on a European level?
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Scotland has become one of Europe’s most underperforming countries on a European level
We could talk all day about where every specific Scottish club has gone wrong in the last decade, and we still wouldn’t be finished.
Hibs are one of several Scottish clubs whose risk-averse approach to both playing and signing young players has limited their potential.
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They have shown a clear willingness to spend over the years, but their pre-occupation with expensive EFL cast-offs has allowed clubs elsewhere in Europe to continue to dominate markets where the true value lies.
Instead of spreading their bets with high-upside teenagers like many of their Belgian and Scandinavian counterparts, they have swung and missed with big-money gambles… Dylan Vente, Thibault Kildje, et cetera.
Celtic’s underachievement in Europe is unique among their Scottish peers.
Aside from the standard of their league, Celtic have every single raw material required to be a competitive Champions League club.
Dermot Desmond’s profitable financial model has the club in a position of immense financial strength that many on the continent could only dream of.
But this era of financial growth has coincided with European decline. Like Hibs and most of Scotland, they have been behind the curve.
Forget their playing squad for a minute – Celtic’s recruitment operation is severely understaffed and structurally deficient compared to their European counterparts.
Celtic have just entered the peak transfer window with no permanent Head of Recruitment and no Director of Football or equivalent. There is not a single other Champions League club who would do this. Check, if you want.
Instead of taking lessons from standout European clubs, they choose to believe that “we’re different”, just as Scottish football does as a whole.
The whole nation has a fundamentally conservative attitude, of which Celtic are the epitome.
Michael Nicholson has often been slammed as “incompetent” by Hoops fans in recent months, and in areas such as communication, this can easily be deemed the case.
But under Desmond’s model, he is achieving most of what his remit demands. He is delivering a profitable club which has dominated Scottish football.
The reason Celtic underachieve primarily in Europe is because the competition is simply smarter and better.
Until their domestic counterparts create the same dynamic – and Hearts have already threatened to do so – don’t expect much change to Celtic’s European results.
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