One wonders if decades from now, the 'made a better fist of it after the break' range will have quite the same cachet.

Being drawn against Benfica in the Europa League was manna from heaven for the club’s commercial department. Thousands of Celtic fans would be making the pilgrimage to Lisbon and the Estadio Nacional, the sight of the club’s greatest triumph back in 1967. It was a chance to get a head start on punting some of the new range of tat before next year’s 60th anniversary and throw yet more of their supporters’ money on the big pile.

From a footballing perspective, though, this was the stuff of nightmares. Inevitably, when things went predictably pear-shaped on the field of play, the comparisons between the legends of the past and the lame ducks of the present was a stark one, and the stuff of headline writers' dreams.

(Image: Javier Garcia / Shutterstock)

‘From Lions to Lambs’ screamed the back pages, as Martin O’Neill’s men were dismantled in the Estadio da Luz by the Super Eagles, who far from getting their wings clipped, felt – as one Portuguese paper put it – only the slightest of tickles beneath them from their once storied opponents.

This is what Celtic, and by extension, Scottish football, have become. Our champions - mere cannon fodder for the big boys of the continent. Teams like Benfica, who have now put 10 goals past last season’s Scottish Premiership top two in two matches on their home patch, look at Celtic the way that we would once look at the minnows of Luxembourg or Gibraltar. A guaranteed win, with the chance of a good few goals into the bargain.

There are some mitigating factors, of course. Everyone knows that even Celtic, never mind Hearts, don’t have the spending power that the really big boys enjoy. But in Celtic’s case, the gap in class to Benfica simply should not be this cavernous. Even against the likes of Ferencvaros, recently, they have been found wanting.

That the gap is so large, and that they are now routinely being humbled by middle of the road European teams, never mind the giants, is largely self-inflicted. The weaknesses of Celtic, which they can usually carry in domestic competition but which are ruthlessly exposed when they step up even the slightest level, are hardly new. But transfer window after transfer window, they go unaddressed.

(Image: Javier Garcia / Shutterstock)

That Celtic’s European standing is in the gutter really should bother their board more than it appears to. Martin O’Neill can’t be blamed for scratching around for the positives in his post-match interview on Thursday night. He has to protect team morale ahead of an important run of games. The fact is that the game was gone and Benfica had the cigars out in the second half.

But surely there isn’t one person at Celtic who witnessed how their team was dismantled by a rotated Benfica outfit during that first 45 minutes and still thinks they have done a good job over the summer. Beyond of course, coming out with a profit.

Last season was one big giant wake up call for Celtic. A ginormous, flashing red light, screaming out that all wasn’t well. That O’Neill rode to the rescue and somehow pulled the league title out of the fire with about seven minutes of the campaign remaining should have been cause for relief, but the reprieve shouldn’t have been taken as a sign that the show should be allowed to roll on.

Everything that had gone before those final few moments of the season should have told the Celtic board that sweeping action had to be taken. That a long overdue modernisation of their recruitment department and the hiring of a head coach who would be able to drag their game model into the 21st century would have been a start.

Instead, the defeat of Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup Final that saw Celtic end the season with a double became succour for the beleaguered board, and a comfort blanket to convince themselves that the club was actually on the right track.

As a result, whenever Celtic have been remotely tested this season, they have fallen embarrassingly short. The humiliating loss to LASK, the defeat to Ferencvaros at home, the double-header of defeats to Rangers and now this hounding from Benfica. Sixteen goals against, three goals for.

(Image: Javier Garcia / Shutterstock)

Some people will tell you that Celtic fans are entitled for expecting better. But like any football fan, they just want their club to be the best it can possibly be. And currently, through their own mismanagement, they are a million miles away from meeting their potential.

One can only wonder what Jock Stein would make of it all. His famous line that the Celtic jersey doesn’t shrink to fit inferior players is now redundant. Those in charge of the club have seen to that. Expectations have been lowered, and not all of it can be blamed on the shifting tectonic plates of finances in European football.

Where once there was defiance and ambition to upset the odds, there is now only meek acceptance of their place in the food chain. In fact, it could certainly be argued, acceptance of a place several rungs below where they should be on that ladder. The comfort that they are at least just a little bit better than Rangers may also be tested this season.

No wonder then that the club are milking the Lisbon Lions for all they are worth. And no wonder Celtic fans were raising a wry eyebrow on Thursday night towards the recent statement on the club website that the reputation of Celtic was ‘non-negotiable’.

(Image: Stuart Wallace / Shutterstock)

What this Celtic team produced on Thursday evening was an insult to the Lions’ legacy, and where the club continues to set its sights is an insult to everything that great team and their manager once stood for.

European nights used to stir something within the Celtic support. Now? Only apathy.