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Celtic £30m transfer splurge still risks Champions League bellyflop and my LASK experience shows rain is never far away Our man Michael Gannon knows all to well the clouds that cover the Champions League qualifiers The skies erupted with the kind of biblical downpour last seen when Noah was ushering pairs of pets on to his ark. A poor band of Scottish sports hacks were huddled together outside the old Linzer Stadion, frantically trying to find a taxi still on the road while suffering stabbing pains every time a goal alert flashed up on the phones from one of the all-time World Cup clashes. Germany were knocking bells out of Brazil on their way to a famous 7-1 semi-final win while we were getting soaked through to the undercrakers. It might be a weird memory to flash up but that was the last time Celtic faced LASK, or LASK Linz as they were back in 2014. They’ve moved house since, with a fancy new gaff awaiting the Hoops in the return leg. It was the early days of Ronny Deila ’s spell and it never just rained, it poured for the Norwegian as well. Before the clouds burst, the bold Ronny was trying to put a face on Scott Brown and James Forrest facing three months out, Virgil van Dijk and Fraser Forster spending more time on the phone to agents than on the pitch and new players trickling rather than flooding in. Celtic fans are used to transfer window frustration but that was a cracker. Teemu Pukki notched a hat trick in the 5-2 win against LASK but wasn’t long for the parish. Neither was Forster but he did keep Van Dijk. Aleksandar Tonev checked in days late and Jo Inge Berget arrived on loan along with Wakaso Mubarak to complete an unholy trinity. Celtic wanted neither John Guidetti or Stefan Scepovic but accidentally ended up with the pair of them amid the midnight scramble on deadline day. Weeks later, Deila’s side got lashed 6-1 by Legia Warsaw, only to get pumped out by Maribor in the Champions League play-off, with the club vowing to learn lessons. That’s been a familiar phrase over the years. Peter Lawwell said it after a few ropey windows, Michael Nicholson and Brian Wilson have done the same recently – albeit after underarm questions from club media. But this time, have Celtic actually learned the lessons? It does look like the penny might be dropping. Signing a dozen hopefuls for £2million and hoping one or two might turn out to be stars is a plan that has worked at times. But when it hasn’t it’s ended up in a familiar result – Celtic falling flat on their faces in Champions League qualifiers. In nine attempts at these hurdles they’ve bellyflopped seven times. They can’t allow it to become eight when they face LASK again. The Austrians are a different animal to the middling outfit from 12 years ago. Celts heeded their warning from last season’s shambles and have gone – relatively – big. Throwing £30m at Kasper Hogh, Camilo Duran, Haissem Hassan and Mika Baur is serious. But it wasn’t reckless when there’s Daizen Maeda money in and more when the £22m Arne Engels cheque drops. More is required though. Celtic fans have cheered up but in terms of lessons and results, the club has gone from a F last summer to a B minus at best. Martin O’Neill should not have been talking about an Engels replacement on Friday. The new man should be in the door. Likewise with Alistair Johnston. Injury has ruled him out of next week and scuppered his move to Everton. But the defender was hot after the World Cup and Celts should’ve been ready to say goodbye. The goalkeeper, left-back and left-wing issues remain as well, and Hassan and Baur could have done with another fortnight finding their feet. Celtic are in far better shape than they were a month ago and they have the financial wriggle room to spend another chunk without losing any sleep. This summer has shown they are capable of shifting up a gear but they still need to learn it’s better to buy a brolly beforehand because the rain is never far away.