Celtic’s away record leaves Gordon Strachan lost for answers

Graham Spiers

We are in Denmark with Celtic for tonight's Champions League group E clash with Aalborg. This being late November, some of the Christmas tinsel is starting to go up around town and, as freezing as it is, the solid, stoical Danes here appear contented with their lot. If only the same could be said for Gordon Strachan and his team.

The Scottish champions could be about to bite the dust in this season's tournament, though that is not the heart of their grievance. Rather, an inability to record a win away from Parkhead in Europe is what is gnawing at everybody. There is a freaky randomness in football, as in life: a team can go three, four, five, six matches on the road and not win, and no-one will read much into it. By the time that toll reaches 10 games, you really start to wonder. Once it gets to 19 games - where it currently stands with Celtic - you really have to ask what pernicious forces are at work.

Celtic's Champions League record away from home is a faint embarrassment. The statistics can seem clouded by pre-qualifying matches and last-16 encounters but Celtic's record is best summed up thus: they have so far played 17 group-stage games away from home since entering the Champions League in 2001-02, plus two last-16 fixtures away from home (against AC Milan and Barcelona), and have lost 18 and drawn one of these 19 games. As winless streaks go in sport, this can surely be categorised as atrocious.

"We need to change this," said Andreas Hinkel, Celtic's German full-back. "The club needs to be free of this [record]."

Everyone is plain exhausted by the scenario. The sports reporters who gather around Celtic and Strachan have run out of ideas as to how to address the situation. And Strachan himself has run out of answers to all the questions put to him about it.

Nineteen games without a win is quite a failing. Is it psychological? Is it a genetic flaw? Is it mere - if cruel - fate? "We've tried everything, everything!" said Strachan here in Aalborg, and he has, too. The Celtic manager has tried different personnel, different systems, yet on and on this Celtic blight continued. While the Celtic fans here are happily swilling their beer and openly enjoying themselves, the club's more serious students find it all a troubling arithmetic.

Of course, when it is called "Celtic's away record", that is hardly a simple ascription. There have, in truth, been three or four different Celtic sides in that seven-year period, as well as two different managers. So the unwanted record is hardly the same as a flaw which can be diagnosed in a building, a bridge or even a prime minister. The best that can be said of Celtic's way record is that it seems to be some sort of virus in the club's travel-hamper, as if that offers any more clarity.

It may all end in Aalborg tonight ... we shall see. "Records are there to be broken," footballers like to say, but this Celtic one has proved distractingly durable.

***

I see Sir Alex Ferguson's hair is back to its boot-polish brown again up top - I noticed this from his pre-match press conference in Spain. Last week, while meeting Sir David Murray, the Rangers chairman, I was perplexed to find that his hair is now blond, having been dark brown just a matter of years ago.

I wish football people - especially those that are getting on a bit - would give this up-top shading a miss. Do you remember Cesare Maldini, the globe-trotting Italian coach, whose silver thatch suddenly went inky-black almost overnight at the age of 70 while at the 2002 World Cup in charge of Paraguay?

Surely Uefa or Fifa can put a stop to these offences.

Comments

[edward donagher]

It interesting to read the comments on this issue. Why are other Scottish club supporters so concerned about Celtic´´s away record,because of their love of Scottish football or their concern for Celtic as a club.I think there maybe some other motive.

[Brian Wilson]

I agree with Martin, Aalborg are not one of Europe's big guns, but niether are Celtic.

[Ross]

Celtic's overall record is indeed respectable, but their record this year makes for grim reading. Not even "Fortress Parkhead" has provided solace thus far. 2 points at home and 0 away is hardly respectable. If memory serves me correctly, Celtic now need to take something from their next game to avoid this season being Scotland's all-time worst entrant in the Champions league group stages.

It could be argued that the respectable overall record has been a team punching well above its weight in European competition. Alas, thanks to Celtic's elimination from all European competitions this year, we'll have to wait until next season to find out for sure. Rangers in the meantime, can console themselves in the knowledge that their exit was a result of a lack of match sharpness, due to the early start to the qualifiers. Celtic have no such excuse to hide behind.

[Chris]

While I agree it's not ideal to be put out by the team who put out the team who put out Rangers, it's not the end of the world. Celtic's overall record is still respectable.

[Ross]

Chris, I'm afraid those facts you mention do point to a greater mystery. While it's debatable that Boavista and Blackburn were of Champions league quality in the first place, Liverpool undoubtedly are. But as you correctly point out, this was in the UEFA cup, and was quite some time ago now in any case (5 years I believe). We're talking about the Champions League here, where Celtic time and again are like a deer caught in the headlights when away from the comfort of Celtic Park. It is evident that this monkey on their back weighs heavily on their minds. Who's to say whether an away victory in the UEFA cup would now be possible given this run? Thanks to last night's debacle, we won't know for at least another year now.

Let's also not forget that in the midst of this run you mention, Celtic were humbled 5-0 away from home to Artmedia. The lack of an away victory is not "unfortunate", it is concrete evidence that there is something fundamentally wrong there.

While I'm sure this run is "tiresome" for Celtic fans, to the rest of us it is just plain baffling.

[colin young]

This isn't a no-issue, it's a big issue! Assuming 10 to 12 points is your guarantee to qualifying for the knockout stage (granted 8 or can get you there) an away win would go a long way to assuring qualification, giving Celtic's good home record.

Seeing the misses by Samaras and Nakamura yesterday I feel for G.S. What chance has he got when accomplished internationals can't hit a coo's @rse.

[Martin]

"Celtic's Champions League record away from home is a faint embarrassment"? An extraordinarily generous assessment from Mr Spiers, even before the Aalborg debacle. Is Aalborg Celtic's worst away performance yet in the Champions League proper (remembering that the 5-0 tonking from mighty Artmedia was in a qualifier)? Celtic led against the Danes, who are certainly not one of Europe's big guns, with 70-odd minutes played but still contrived to lose and crash out of Europe altogether!

[Scott, Sydney]

This wasn't Lyon, Barca or Milan. This was Aalborg sitting 7th in the Danish League of 12 teams. It is an embarassment that the SPL champions could not beat this team home & away. Squad is very poor - Strachan, Lawwell, Reid & board's fault on recruitment & spending. Celtic will never get a better chance to get rid of this poor record.

[Chris]

Ross, in the middle of that run Celtic beat Blackburn, Liverpool, and Boavista away in the UEFA cup, that there hasn't been a win away in the Champion's League is merely unfortunate, it doesn't point to any greater mystery. It's, frankly, tiresome.

[Ross]

Peter H: Other teams manage it just fine. Why, tiny Cluj of Romania humbled the Italian giants Roma in what was their first ever outing in the Champions league group stage this season. They were 4th seeds by some distance, and this is not an isolated incident, just an example of how it is very much possible.

I'm sorry, but Celtic's away record merits special attention. You may not expect them to get an away victory, but it is very much possible, and should have happened by now. 19 games without one is abysmal.

[Peter H]

Is the away record really atrocious? Celtic are 3rd or fourth seeds in the CL groups. It is therefore unlikely that they will win two thirds of their away games. So realistically Celtic could only have been expected to possibly win 6 of these games. They have also drawn Shakter twice as the 4th seed. Again, not expected to beat them away.
The only games I remember where a victory was expected was Rosenberg and Copenhagen and they had already qualified by the time the game against Copenhagen came around. Or do we expext Celtic to go away and beat Milan, Barca, Juve, Man U, Porto, Bayern? It's akin to berating Kilmarnock for not winning at Celtic Park since 1955.

[Chris]

"The sports reporters who gather around Celtic and Strachan have run out of ideas as to how to address the situation."

What are we to do if even the press don't have a clue?

This is a non-issue, it would be nice to read a different angle on it, rather than the usual "away day hoodoo" hysteria.