Celtic’s pre-season French tour reviewed.

So Celtic concluded their pre-season French tour last night with a thumping 4-0 loss to French Champions and perennial ‘alleged’ FFP abusers PSG.

It all started last Thursday evening with a 1-1 draw against Nice now under the care of Patrick Viera in a match we initially dominated but were denied a lead through Odsonne Edouard thanks to VAR.

I’m not even going to waste any time describing the incident because ultimately it doesn’t matter a jot.

Needless to say, it should have stood.

Anyway, Danish striker Kasper Dolberg subsequently skipped into the box before giving the hosts the lead against the run of play later in the half.

Incidentally, Dolberg cost Nice £18 million from Ajax last year. That’s double our record fee paid for French Eddy. Scary stuff.

Ryan Christie then passed up a chance to equalise when he placed his effort wide early in the second half before Patryk Kilmala scored his first goal for the club after robbing the French sides keeper Teddy Boulhendi who dithered over a clearance.

So 1-1 is how it ended as we brought down the curtain on 131 days absence from playing the beautiful game.

In the next match on Saturday, we came up against Lyon featuring our former striker Moussa Dembele who reacquainted himself to us by scoring the opener for his current club on 4 mins and Lyon doubled that through Memphis Dupay before the break.

Just like in the first game manager Neil Lennon changed the entire team on the hour mark, effectively bringing on our usual starting outfield ten and not surprisingly the pendulum of the game swung dramatically as Mohamed Elyounoussi pulled a goal back with a fine mazy run and finish though 2-1 to the hosts is how it stayed.

Then in the final game, we got battered 4-0 off of a full-strength PSG side who took the lead in under a minute through Kylian Mbappé before conceding another through Neymar who underlined how thoroughly repellent he is by spending the majority of a ‘friendly’ kicking out at opposition players, mouthing off to the referee and trying to wind our whole team up.

In the second half, we conceded another couple and probably should have scored a few ourselves. James Forrest, in particular, came close.

By the end, we were well beaten by one of Europe’s premier sides though they should be considering their front two alone cost a combined €410 million.

Your hope is that if there is to be a silver lining from this horrific pandemic that it will see the chickens coming home to roost for clubs like PSG who flaunt any kind of financial fair play with ridiculous excessive spending though that still remains wishful thinking even in these unprecedented times.

It’s also a reminder of why outside of the financial rewards I’m generally unenthused about us taking part in the Champions League group stages considering we are effectively bringing a penknife to a gunfight.

Anyway as workouts go it was worth it and the results, to be honest, I couldn’t really give a toss about and any Celtic fan that does needs to stop bumping their gums.

The only impressive preseason I’ve ever seen us have was in the summer of 2009 when Tony Mowbray took over and we all know how that ended.

Seeing Rangers fans flaunt the ‘Veolia trophy’ which they lifted for winning their two friendlies with Nice and Lyon is more symptomatic of a support base clutching at straws due to not having won any significant silverware for nearly a decade as opposed to genuine delight.

Didn’t we win ‘The Hamilton Cup’ under Lou Macari during one summer tour back in the day?

I’m sure that’s gathering dust in a corner somewhere inside Celtic Park.

Anyway, the real thing kicks off a week on Sunday at 4.30pm when we unveil the flag at home to another Hamilton, this one being the Accies.

A preview of what is sure to be a surreal occasion at a bereft Celtic Park to follow.

Until then let’s just hope we keep everyone fit and sort out the goalkeeper situation.