AND now to the actual football.

If we for a moment forget all about Scott McKenna, Dedryck Boyata, manager and board not seeing eye to eye and some clubs hovering over Parkhead ready to write out some big cheques, the is a tie to get through.

The Europa League group stage is not so bad, you now. There is every chance Celtic will be in pot two which would give them a more than decent chance to reach the knock-out stage after Christmas and they might well draw a big name.

AC Milan, Chelsea, Arsenal, Lazio, Marseille, Arsenal. That would have the old ground off London Road jumping for sure.

And a good run – plus the same with Rangers – might get the co-efficient above Scotland’s 23rd place – just above behind Israel and above Cyprus.

Celtic and defensive crisis traditional was them wearing Hoops. Ask an older supporter and they will tell you of bad back fours from the past who with a slip or missed tackle could do so much good work in a split-second.

And this is when Celtic were on of the best teams in Europe. Yup, even then Billy McNeill and the rest were at their pomp.

Suduvo are most likely the weakest team Celtic have faced so far this season. However, they are champions of their country and therefore demand respect, in particular in this first leg

Brendan Rodgers was in a good mood at the Celtic team hotel last night but it’s been a tricky month for the manager to deal with on and off the park issues.

“You have to park it. It’s important and it’s all in the life of a manager,” he said. “There are bumps along the way but you are trying to find the solution to it, that’s important.

I respect and understand this period is so emotional for players. Especially because you have sums of money now these players are being offered which are vast now. It’s not just a small jump, it’s a significant jump. It can be up to three or four times their salary here.

“And if players feel there is an opportunity and it’s a short career then of course they have to ask the question. So, I understand it.

A good manager, and Rodgers is most certainly that is to protect the players when there is background noise, and in this case it is in the foreground.

“My job is to protect the team,” he said. “I want to develop individuals, develop the team, but also to look after the team. This is a group which over the last couple of years - and still remains - one where we have no frauds in that group.

“We try to take out as much of the risk in terms of bringing in the wrong types as we can to preserve the spirit within the group. And the captain, Scott Brown, is vital to that.”

Celtic are not were they want to be. Let’s not pretend otherwise. However, the Europa League gives them a different objective. They won’t win it, but they can pick up a lot more wins and points than they have over the previous two seasons.

“We are not in the Champions League this year,” said Rodgers as if he needed to remind himself. “We are at the stage where we are not entitled to it, we have to earn it. We didn’t for a number of reasons. But it’s gone.

“Listen, the Europa League is a very prestigious tournament. Yeah it doesn’t have the glamour surrounding the CL, but from a footballing perspective it’s a great competition. You only need to look at the teams in it. It’s a wonderful opportunity for us.

“It’s a long road this qualification campaign and we want to have European football in September and it’s something we have to fight for over these next two games.

What happened in Athens hurt but it would do nobody any good if the manager was still smarting from it.

“It’s gone now,” he said. “Naturally there’s disappointment of course. You come back and you reflect on that.

“And of course there is always noise around it but the important thing was to win the next game, no matter who was against or the competition. It was important to win. I think it also shows the level the players have been at, that that was the first time we had lost back to back games.

“That really shows you the consistency of the team. You have to take that at times it’s not always going to be plain sailing, you take the criticism that comes and you move on. Okay it wasn’t a brilliant performance at the weekend but we got through and that was important for us. We got working again and got back into competition phase.”

Celtic would be in better shape if a few more signings had been made but Rodgers can only work with what he’s got.

New players will come in but they need to be Rodgers’s kind of footballers and not simply someone who can fill a shirt.

“It’s about getting the right type of quality,” the manager said. “What I’ve always felt is that the squad needs competition. And I like I said at the beginning we lost two real competitors from our squad, players that drove the team on, drove individual players on.

“We’ve always had that. If you don’t have that it’s not what you want for your group. But we can’t just bring anyone in to say we’ve signed a player. There has to be a purpose and a reason behind it and it has to be someone that is of a quality that we want. Otherwise there is no point doing it.

“I know many. It’s been pretty clear for the last three months. I know exactly how many wanted, who we wanted, it’s as simple as that. And if we can’t and we can’t get the targets and we have to move to another one or that’s not quite right then that’s where we are. We go with what we’ve got.”