Celtic supporters have been all over ‘phone-in shows and social media, criticising Dermot Desmond, Peter Lawwell and the rest of the Parkhead powerbrokers for the mess the club finds itself in.

Last season they threw away the chance to win a historic ten in a row, were knocked out of the League Cup at home by relegated Ross County, dumped out of the Scottish Cup by champions Rangers and humiliated in Europe.

After just two games this term, they’ve been kicked out of the Champions League by Danish minnows FC Midtjylland and now face a potentially treacherous trip to the Czech Republic to take on Jablonec on Thursday in the Europa League.

Supporters are seething but Hoops hero Frank McAvennie reckons the situation can’t be compared to the mass protests and boycotts of 1993/94, when fed-up fans forced the old board to resign after months of protests.

The current disillusionment with the club’s directors is at the highest level since then but Macca doesn’t expect the formation of Celts For Change 2.

“I don’t know if it’ll ever get to that stage again,” he said. “The situation is completely different, really. Back then the club was running at a loss and it wasn’t just the fact they weren’t able to back the manager – there was talk of selling the stadium and we would’ve gone bust if it hadn’t been for Fergus McCann coming in to save us.

“The present board has money: they’ve just not been spending it. They’ve thrown the manager under a bus by asking him to take on Midtjylland in Champions League qualifiers with that team and that bench. Midtjylland’s players dream of signing for an club like Celtic but they turned us over. The entire back four and the goalkeeper aren’t good enough, Ryan Christie is running down his contract and shouldn’t play again and it’s obvious Odsonne Edouard wants away as well.

“Unfortunately, up front that just leaves Albian Ajeti, who never kicked a ball when he was with West Ham and who has no passion to play for Celtic. You’d have thought a new managher coming in would’ve kick-started his career but he’s done nothing.

“Ange Postecoglou must be wondering what he’s got himself into. I doubt that he realised the scale of the rebuilding work that’s needed. I was at the West Ham game last weekend, watching my two former clubs and hoping that the Hammers would be impressed by Parkhead and by Celtic.

“Unfortunately, they played like a pub team and could’ve lost 10-2 rather than 6-2. The manager hasn’t got his own staff in yet and maybe that won’t happen. I fear for the club and the supporters because the recruitment last season was nothing short of awful. Between that and the players who’ve left and will leave, we probably still need another seven or eight new signings who can go straight into the starting XI.”

McAvennie can’t explain how Celtic ended up in this mess after only recently boasting the biggest financial and footballing advantage over their city rivals in their history.

“What baffles me is how we went from being so good two years ago to being so bad now,” he fumes. “This isn’t a sudden slide, though: whatever you may think of him, Brendan Rodgers saw it coming and got out. Rangers were dead and buried not so long ago but now they’re back and their team is full of free transfers and £50,000 signings but they’ve signed well.

“I wouldn’t mind losing the title to them if we’d given them a fight but we didn’t – we gave it up. The league was won by the turn of the year. Rangers are now odds-on favourites to win it again this season – and go straight into the Champions League if they do. Celtic are so far off the pace that Rangers deserve to be favourites.”