Ange Postecoglou admitted Celtic were nowhere near good enough after being battered by Bodo/Glimt as he unleashed on the Norwegain press.
Postecoglou was left deeply annoyed after Celtic crashed out of the Conference League with a shuddering 5-1 aggregate loss.
Postecoglou’s irritation at the poor performance spilled over when asked by a local reporter if he thought Bodo/Glimt could win the tournament.
He snapped: “Mate, come on. Ask their coach. Why do I care? Really. Do you think I really care who wins this tournament now? We’re not going to win it.
“They’re a good team, I hope they keep going well, but I couldn't care less who wins the tournament.”
The unhappy manager believes his team turned in their two worst European performances of his reign as they were dismissed. Postecoglou said: “It was a disappointing night. I think it’s fair to say that, over the two games, we didn’t perform at the levels we needed to.
“We didn’t deserve to go through and Bodo deserved to win the tie.
“Over the two games, we have lacked a little bit of the intensity we need to bring to these games.
“We were still a bit too passive at the start and conceding the goal doesn’t help.
“Irrespective of that, our performance levels were not anywhere near where they should be over the two games. When that happens, you don’t progress.
“It’s not where I want to be. It’s where they have to be.
“We just didn’t perform. We have been pretty consistent this year in bringing a certain level of intensity and intent in our game and we haven’t for these two games.
“When you’re playing against good opposition in Europe, you get punished. That’s probably our two least effective performances in Europe this year.
“Even when we lost to Bayer Leverkusen 4-0, I still think we showed more intent than we have in these two games.
“If you’re at this football club, the expectation is that you do well in multiple competitions.
“You shouldn’t have to be unsuccessful to focus on something else. I think that’s a cop-out.
“We wanted to progress and we haven’t. That’s on to me. That’s my responsibility. We’ve got to improve.”
Postecoglou made a raft of alterations to the side which started the first leg seven days previously at Parkhead.
Skipper Callum McGregor was amongst those who started on the subs bench alongside the likes of Cameron Carter-Vickers, Josip Juranovic and Jota.
But Postecoglou said it’s his duty to protect players through a gruelling schedule with Sunday’s lunchtime Premiership clash against Hibs within the thought process.
He said: “It’s why we have a squad. We can’t compete in all these tournaments without it.
“We got through the first-half of the year, but we just got through it because we had an enormous amount of injuries.
“We play at midday on Sunday and you know how late we are going to get back from Norway. After playing on an artificial pitch.
“If we expected players to back up in those two games, then I’m not doing my job in looking after the players in the right way.
“The team we put out there was good enough to play better than what we did and that’s the disappointing thing.
“But, at the same time, we have got to understand that’s why we brought players in, to make sure that we have a strong squad to compete.”
Postecoglou is adamant it was nothing to do with prioritising and added: “It’s not about being out of one tournament should make it easier in another. That’s not where our focus is.
“But that’s the next challenge for us on Sunday. I expect to go further in every competition.
“This year, Europe was a bit beyond us in terms of the levels we need to get to. It’s my responsibility to make sure we improve and next year perform better.”
