Now that the madness is over and we can reflect calmly on what transpired, what conclusions can we draw, and what outcomes have we witnessed?

Before dealing with individual issues, the caveat overhanging all of this is the fact that, using the most important benchmark, the club failed to progress in the Champions League against a club with revenue just over 29% of Celtic’s.

Another horrendous failure against relative minnows who have humiliated the Club eight out of ten times. Not only can we not get close to the European success of our financial peer group, but we can’t get past clubs who we should be brushing aside with relative ease.

Since 2012 there has been no meaningful benchmark in staying ahead of the dead, yet we have refused to set a modestly ambitious but very realistic target of qualifying for the Champions League. Even when facing just one qualifying round against teams whose stadiums would fit in the Superstore.

Rather, the club’s oft-stated goal of pointless vagueness (‘compete in Europe’) is the perfect expression of a laughable and unforgivable lack of ambition, which in this window led to what historically is Celtic’s worst-ever European result. This saw us widely and understandably mocked across Europe and beyond. The damage to the club’s reputation is inestimable but undoubtedly significant. The ridicule has been hard to take and impossible to defend against.

I covered previously the blame to be shared by the players and management team. There is no getting away from that fact. The game management and individual performances were utterly dire, which is deflecting a lot of flak from the board. As understandable as that may be, the squad that went into that game was paper thin. There was no margin for injuries, lack of fitness or poor performances, and we suffered from all three.

Every substitution, and we used them all, degraded the quality of the team. We finished the game with at least five players you would not be happy to see in the side for a domestic fixture. One of our main purchases pre-LASK was not fit to start the first game and did not appear in the humiliation, as he was brought in too late to be ready.

Despite denials that this catastrophe affected our subsequent signing decisions, we secured five players before the deadline in a mad scramble to paper over the cracks in the squad without laying out any significant fees. Only one (looks like a project) wasn’t a loan, and three of them could have helped us navigate the LASK tie. All of them could have been here before that game.

Another £40m gambled and lost. Lessons entirely unlearned. Whilst these radically risk-averse incompetents remain at the helm, we are doomed to the hinterland of ‘aspirational’ and ‘punch above our weight’ planning.

The faux attempt to sign Gineitis takes me back to a point I’ve made often. This was a performative failure for the benefit of a frustrated and angry manager who made it clear he wanted the player as a priority. Sources on the Torino side revealed that the CEO never put Celtic in a position to complete the deal, despite the player having agreed to terms and said his goodbyes to the fans and his teammates.

In my opinion, a decision was made by the axis of feeble to block the signing and use the usual nebulous excuses for how it somehow fell short. The corporate equivalent of ‘a big boy did it and ran away!’ Despite us having taken in roughly £9.5m the day before on two players you would not have expected to generate such income, we ensured the deal broke down.

We have ended this window with a substantial profit, possibly up to £20m, which is fantastic news for fans. Like me, I’m sure you’ve also heard the supporters fervently calling for the pointless money mountain to be topped up, and why we shouldn’t be recklessly utilising funds on a defensive midfielder (in a midfield that only last week was cut through like a knife through warm butter) or on a left back who’s not an injured 18-year-old with no first team experience. Thankfully our first choice left back finishes 90 minutes without fail every week, so at least there won’t be undue pressure on Scales and the new youth.

Have we improved as a squad from last season? In my view, we have definitely scraped over that depressingly low bar. Remember, despite the Almaty horror show and a team that was crumbling in front of our eyes, the board’s reaction was to do virtually nothing as Desmond and Rodgers concentrated on measuring their man parts to the detriment of an abysmal squad.

Although I jest, our season nearly imploded because Rodgers had finally had enough of being told what couldn’t be done by our bloodless bean counters, and the God King was so enraged he couldn’t be brought to heel and dominated (like a boardroom full of knee-bending puppets) that he fired off a scandalous communication which embarrassed everyone associated with the club who are not in receipt of Desmond’s royal favour.

So, is it baby steps then, for which we should be grateful? The positive news is that I believe we won’t have much trouble domestically. Our rivals appear to have regressed, and we have signed enough firepower to overwhelm domestic opposition, despite being short in other areas.

The Europa League? I believe we have the players to make an impact if we play the formation that best fits our real talents. We also need to seriously address how open we are when playing very good sides, or we’ll be battered from pillar to post. We have a potentially very decent side when injury-free, and there is a huge responsibility on the manager and coaches to deploy them effectively.

In summary then, we have yet again failed the test that really matters; we have added to the pointless pile of money with no purpose, and we have improved upon last season’s desperately poor squad.

I’m very happy that we won’t have to watch the dull dross that we had to slog through last season, and I hope that we can acquit ourselves well in the Europa League.

Ultimately though, it’s a familiar tale of lack of vision, ambition and planning. Now we pick ourselves up and go again. What choice do we have?

No matter how abysmally the Desmond family business is run, we support the Celtic.

And Celtic is so much more than inadequate executives or a billionaire’s plaything.

Mon The Hoops.