Celtic elite transfer challenge laid bare as ex boss sets Champions League statement win challenge

Celtic need to ditch attractive football and become hard to beat again to progress in Europe – according to the man who led them into the Champions League knockout stages twice.

And even though the Scottish champions might have tens of millions to spend this summer, Gordon Strachan believes the Parkhead coffers are still too modest to guarantee success at Europe’s top table. So returning to the more defensive approach he deployed when steering the Hoops into the last 16 in successive years in 2007 and 2008, might be the best chance they have of making an impact under Brendan Rodgers next season.

In doing so, Strachan’s dogged team sprung two massive group stage shocks, beating Man Utd and the then European champions AC Milan. And occasional big scalps like that, he believes, are vital if they want to live with the best in Europe’s premier competition. Strachan said: “My mindset and the team’s mindset, was I just have to win. I’d love to play lovely football, but I just want to win. That’s it.

“And we made life extremely difficult for the teams we were playing. If I was playing against AC Milan or Man United, I spent a lot of time working on how we stop these guys playing. That was my main thought. I would like to play good football, but my mindset was just to make sure that we won games of football or didn’t get beat. And also I think you need one big result. It’s like Scotland with the Euros, they beat Spain (in qualifying).

“But in our time if you’d beat AC Milan, who were ‘the’ AC Milan at that time - the number one team - and you beat Man United, that’s three points you took away there. If you can get that, somehow get that. Then you’ve got a good chance. You need that big one. You need that one big win against a