Roy Keane believes something has to change for Celtic to succeed in Europe, criticising the mindset of the club following Wednesday’s 7-0 defeat to Barcelona.
The Scottish champions were sent crashing down to earth at the home of the Catalan giants in their Champions League opener, with Luiz Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar all scoring against Brendan Rodgers’ men.
Keane, who ended his playing career at Parkhead in 2006, says that Celtic needs to take a new approach in order to become a force in the tournament.
“They scraped through and I thought they’d actually won the thing,” Keane said on ITV’s Champions League highlights show.
“They’ve got to change the mindset. I’m on about the qualifying games when they were scraping through then celebrating like they’d won the bloody thing.”
The one-sided result took any confidence away from the side after a 5-1 triumph in the Old Firm derby just days prior, with plenty of ground now to try and make up when Manchester City travel to the Parkhead at the end of the month.
“I know it’s difficult after a game and if you have an off night in Barcelona you are in big trouble,” added Keane.
“But on one hand we are being told that Celtic are a great club, great traditions, great history and they go and lose 7-0 to Barcelona and people almost say ‘well these things happen it’s acceptable’.
“All I hear when people talk about Celtic is about winning the league but I think they need to do a lot better in Europe. It’s easier said than done of course and this time round it’s more difficult with the group they are in.
“But even in the qualifying games they were poor. They scraped through and didn’t win any of the away games. I think the whole mindset has to change particularly away from home being the whipping boys of Europe.
“It’s Celtic, a huge club, they need to do a lot better and even when they qualified for this group the celebrations were way over the top.”
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