Sorry, I don't believe for a minute Burnley or Bournemouth would have ripped City apart the other night. Regardless, Celtic should have won the game if you go by the on target stats and I would argue that they should have won in the first game too. City were all over the place that night, where's the credit for stopping an invincible in form City team back at Parkhead? So if the best in form team in England at that time struggled to beat Celtic at Celtic Park, what makes you think teams like Bournemouth, Burnley, Watford etc would?
Just look at the 20 teams in the Premiership, there are genuinely just 10 good clubs there and about 7-8 big clubs. Celtic and equally Rangers are bigger than a lot of clubs in the Premiership. English fans always bang on about how good the Premiership is, granted, true for the 7-8 big clubs but who on earth wants to switch on Sky Sports to watch Burnley vs West Brom? 2 mediocre clubs.
Brings me back to the Ajax / PSV thing again, looking at the figures, Celtic are generating more money than their Dutch counterparts do. Ajax and PSV are getting left behind too and will never likely compete competitively in the CL again either. The same logic applies there, are Ajax no longer a big club because they can't better the wages of Stoke City? Come on, there's far more to being a big club than the transfer fees and wages on offer. Wealth is only 1 ingredient of a big club, fans and history make up the other ingredients. Some would say City lost their identity in 2008, let's admit, they were never really a top team, today though, they are.
Dario, no, there isn't a doubt. Let me know when City or any other English club takes 100k+ to a Euro final like Celtic and Rangers did. As to your 45k jibe, already explained quite a few times, 2012-2016 attendances plummeted due to Rangers being demoted. Look at this seasons. When the competition goes and the league is won by Christmas, you're not going to get 60k there on a Wednesday night against Patrick Thistle. Look at the figures up to 2008/9 though, 57-58k averages when City were nowhere near that.
Mad4city, money talks, the 'champions league' is a farce these days, 16 teams directly from the 4 top divisions is going to get tiresome every year. The term Champions League should certainly be scrapped.
You're right, with the financials, teams like Celtic, Ajax, PSV etc will never win the European cup again. However, I do think they all have the potential to compete in the Europa for that trophy. 2nd best I know but it's realistically all they can hope for. Celtic were in the final in 03 and Rangers in 08 so not a million years away.
The only way Celtic and Rangers will ever compete again is with an invitation into England to reap the financial rewards. The only way that would happen would be through Sky TV wanting change. It certainly won't happen in the short term but I'd like to think in my lifetime that will happen. Look at both Swansea and Cardiff for example. Both small clubs in the grand scheme of things and both have played Premiership football, Swansea now for a good few seasons (although looking at the table, this might be their last)
Jimharri, not sure what that article is getting at? There are idiots in every club, I seem to recall a few City idiots waving Union Jacks and Rangers tops at Parkhead. Any crowd trouble was the fault of your club im afraid. Instead of giving a paltry allocation, they should have given a bigger away allocation and then all Celtic fans would have been contained in one area rather than spread throughout the home sections. They must have known 5-6k or so would make the trip so why give them only 3000 tickets? Bad management by your club there.
When the draw was made, Celtic were always aiming for that 3rd spot to be fair. 3 draws and 3 losses in a very tough group wasn't too bad but I'm pretty gutted the Germans popped us to the Europa spot, it was a bad home performance against them that lost us that place. No European football now for Celti****il next July when it all starts again.
Good luck going forward in the last 16.