Celtic fan reveals hilarious ticketing disaster before trip to Livingston

A Celtic supporter has shared a disastrous ticketing mishap before the Scottish Champions’ trip to the Tony Macaroni Arena. In what is probably the most bizarre thing you will see, the supporter has sought to dry tickets for the Cinch Premiership clash using a kitchen appliance.

On Twitter/X, Megan updated fans to say that her dad decided to attempt to dry a pair of wet tickets by putting them under the grill.

In what could thee most bizarre ticketing tale of woe, the supporter is now scrambling around to try and find spares for tomorrow’s lunchtime kick-off.

Elsewhere, Brendan Rodgers is hoping that his team can navigate the potentially hazardous trip to Livi and return with all three points. Celtic have had issues with the surface since the West Lothian side were promoted in 2018 with their first wins coming under Ange Postecoglou.

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There has to be an understanding of the modern market and the potential impact in the dressing room.

It’s not so much about how much was spent. It’s more about when it was spent.

Quite frankly, I feel the timing of the club’s financial figures just before the opening game of the Champions League group caused a bit of a false narrative. It’s perfectly natural for people to see a figure of £72 million sitting in Celtic’s bank account and wonder why more wasn’t spent in the summer market.

Muse over why the club didn’t go and buy a couple of £10m players knowing more group-stage cash was on the way. It’s frustrating for fans, I get it. But, when making such judgements, there has to be an understanding of the modern market and the potential impact it can have on a dressing room.

Wage offers and demands are off the charts these days. Player value dictates the wages they get paid. Celtic have a successful business model and, if you have to do things football-wise to keep it working correctly, that’s how it has to be. Brendan Rodgers said as much when he talked about not being a fantasist.

Put simply, you can’t sign a £15m player without paying the weekly going rate for a £15m player and there’s the issue right there. Do it with one, you could have an army at the door wanting the same pay. Not even with riches in the bank can Celtic sign £15m players because they can’t be paying £60,000-a-week to any individual, so I don’t have an issue with not splashing on fees because it’s more complex than just a fee and the market is crazy.

Bristol City’s Alex Scott to Bournemouth for £20m. Cameron Archer £18.5m to Sheffield United. Manchester City’s Under-21 keeper James Trafford going to Burnley for £15m. Chelsea paid £60m for Romeo Lavia, a development player. That doesn’t mean you can’t find gems for £5m or less and polish them up as Celtic have done successfully in their model. But with that approach, it must be done quickly. That’s where the key lies for me in the model.

If you are going to think about achieving anything in the Champions League, you have to try and get those types in as soon as possible to get them working in a real rhythm before they enter the cauldron. We can all see that didn’t happen. The team against Feyenoord hadn’t played once as a unit and that’d be my frustration as a manager. You need time to get it flowing. Listen, you cannot legislate for injuries. You cannot predict losing your first-choice centre-back in Cameron Carter-Vickers, or Maik Nawrocki or Liel Abada.

But there are some things you can anticipate. I said at the time Carl Starfelt should not have been sold. Not with Carter-Vickers just returning from surgery. It’s forced Gustaf Lagerbielke to be rushed into the fray without any experienced sidekick and we saw how that worked out in Rotterdam. Celtic knew at the beginning of May when they clinched the title that their group stage began in the middle of September.

As soon as Jota headed to Saudi Arabia at the start of July, his replacement should have been in the door. If that guy was always going to be Luis Palma, he should have been signed way before the final week of the window. Palma hadn’t started a game before Holland. That’s not a recipe for success.

Given the background, I think most people saw a game go the way they more or less expected. It’s happened plenty in the past. Start okay, be in the game, then give away a daft goal and things go downhill from there. Lagerbielke and Odin Thiago Holm were both naive when it came to the two red cards. That is what comes with inexperience at that level, but the experienced ones were also guilty at the first goal.

I’ve given Joe Hart credit and he knows more about goalkeeping than me, but having walls for shots from that distance has always puzzled me.

That weak concession left them an uphill task. And the next five games are also going to be uphill tasks. The likes of Carter-Vickers will return, Reo Hatate should improve sharpness. The rhythm should grow with new guys settling in. Before the next Euro game with Lazio, Celtic have to get the business done domestically. Two tough matches starting at Livingston.

Rodgers made reference to the artificial surface when his team went out of the Viaplay Cup at Kilmarnock. It can’t be a factor. Ange Postecoglou didn’t like them, but his team played at a tempo which meant it didn’t look like they were playing on a gluepot.

Rodgers has to get Celtic doing the same because, having done the hard work at Ibrox to create a gap to Rangers, the key is to keep it because it piles pressure on their rivals. The following challenge at Motherwell will be no less tough in its own way because Stuart Kettlewell is doing a superb job before it’s back to the continent and Lazio.

Even though they can’t compete transfer-wise with the big guns, that doesn’t mean you give up. Celtic has to try and find other ways within their model to give themselves the best chance against the elite. The team is still in the development stage. Superpowers can get away with bedding in signings and gelling set-ups at this stage of the competition.

But, if clubs at Celtic’s level want to have any chance of really competing, the time for development is the two-and-a-half month period between the start of pre-season and the big kick-off to the Champions League. Not when it’s already started. It’s done now. The situation is what it is and Celtic need to start bucking a trend of poor recent results in the competition.

Because, while there’s plenty of pounds sterling in the bank, their credit rating in terms of Euro is running low.