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Deleted member 15344
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Leverkeusen won it, Ajax won it, Porto won it. Celtic won European Cup and made final of 2003 Europa League/UEFA Cup. Steaua Bucharest won European Cup too. Ajax went pretty far last season with a young team.
5000-1 is not short, don't think any bookies would offer longer odds, not unusual for a smaller team to get a good cup run now and again.
You're promoting Colchester FC as you're a fan I assume - they don't win much but no-one's knocking them? Don't see the point of coming onto a thread just to knock the best side in Scotland because the EPL has better teams than any league bar Spain. No reason at all to expect a side from Romania should be well beaten by a club from Scotland.
Bayer didnt actually win it but can see the point youre making but i think there are subtle differences between the clubs you mention and Celtics situation
Ajaz for example have won of the best youth production systems in world football and they are always producing World Class talent - and sometimes they hit a hot patch where they get about 5 or 6 of them in one go and their team is outstanding - happened in the 90's with the De Boers and Seedorff , Davids etc and then last year with De Jong , De Ligt amongst a few , and then Porto tap into the Brazillian market and unearth gems , they have done it for decades and again sometimes they get a good bunch together and do well - 04 for example
Celtic dont have either which doesnt help them but one of the biggest differences is the level of competitiveness - that past ten years 4 teams have won the Dutch league and there is a strong competition for the title between Ajaz , PSV and Feyenoord , in Portugal you have the strong rivalry between Benfica and Porto and its mainly only a couple of points between them - Celtic stroll to the league with not much competition , they are by far the strongest team in the league - you mention Celtic getting to the Europa League Final - was that not in the 2000's when Rangers were also strong and it was a yearly battle between the two and they both reached the final at some stage with both teams having some very good players - Celtic need strong competition , to help attract better telly money for the whole league and also the better players - if Celtic keep strolling to the league each year then the situation is going to get worse for them - the fans will celebrate 10 in a row then 11 in a row and thats great but it wont help them in European Comps - it maybe criminal to say but a stronger Rangers challenging them will make Celtic better