CELTIC could avoid suffering further costly failures to qualify for the Champions League group stages in future by appointing a director of football to oversee the long-term strategy of the club, it was last night claimed.

The Parkhead outfit crashed out of Europe’s premier club competition in the third qualifying round for the second season running on Tuesday evening when they slumped to a 4-3 loss to CFR Cluj in the East End of Glasgow.

The embarrassing 5-4 aggregate defeat means the Scottish champions will once again miss out on joining the likes of Barcelona, Juventus and Manchester City in the tournament proper as well as a windfall of well in excess of £30 million.

The Celtic hierarchy - who only appointed Nicky Hammond as a replacement for Lee Congerton on a temporary basis after their head of recruitment joined Brendan Rodgers at Leicester City in the summer - have been heavily criticised for the transfer business they have conducted in the close season in the aftermath of the result.

Neil Lennon left Boli Bolingoli, the £3.5 million signing who had been brought in to take over from Kieran Tierney at left back in June, on the bench following his error-strewn display in the first leg in Romania last week.

He fielded midfielder Callum McGregor out of position because he had no other player who specialises in the role available and his team failed to perform anywhere near as well as they had in the opening seven games of the 2019/20 campaign.

Dr Dan Parnell, a senior lecturer in sports business at the University of Liverpool and a board member of the Association of Sporting Directors, acts as a consultant for a number of Premier League teams.

The vast majority of clubs in the top flight down south – including Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City and Spurs - have adopted the continental model in recent years and have a figurehead who oversees all aspects of off-field football activity.

Dr Parnell believes that installing a director of football with a wide-ranging remit – which covers player recruitment, the development of young prospects coming through the academy, right up to the appointment of the manager and his coaching staff – could help Celtic to achieve consistent success in Europe as well as domestically going forward.

“I think there is a massive shout for Celtic to have a sporting director,” said Dr Parnell. “The benefits of having someone in a broader role is that whoever is there is a custodian for the long-term and can help to oversee all recruitment of talent, not just playing talent, but the first team manager and his backroom staff as well. That means there is more consistency. That should be the principle around it.

“From a Celtic perspective, all the signs would point towards getting somebody in to provide that long-term strategy. They have to look at what the Celtic way of doing things is. That should influence what kind of manager they recruit, how the academy feeds into the first team and everything that goes around it.

“Is there somebody at the club who does that now? Nicky Hammond is an excellent candidate. However, whoever it is, they need to be given a greater responsibility beyond recruitment. Is there somebody with the skill set to do it now? For sure. There are men and women out there who are more than capable of going and absolutely smashing it at Celtic without doubt.”

The absences of Mikael Lustig at right back and Tierney at left back were keenly felt by Celtic against Cluj on Tuesday evening – neither Hatem Elhamed or McGregor performed with the same level of assurance or authority as those former players in those key positions and the defence leaked no fewer than four goals as a consequence.

The departure of both Rodgers for Leicester back in February and then Congerton to the King Power Stadium three months later undoubtedly made strengthening the Parkhead squad more complicated this summer.

But Dr Parnell feels that clubs can prepare for the loss of key personnel many months in advance if they have a director of football in situ.

“The Premier League clubs I work with have been planning for the first game of this season since well before Christmas last year,” he said. “They have been lining players up, identifying targets, having conversations, drawing up contracts. It is quite manageable, it isn’t rocket science. These are just intelligent, organised, diligent, collaborative people doing it really well. What did Celtic have in place to protect them for the future?

“There are Premier League clubs who are very advanced and have a structure in place that can cope in the short to medium term even if the Director of Football goes because plans are in place. There is communication and people understand the strategy for the first team, loans, the academy, contracts, deals.”

Dr Parnell feels Rangers, who appointed Mark Allen as their first Director of Football back in 2017, have taken the correct approach by handing the former Manchester City academy director responsibility for all areas of their football operation and will reap the rewards of that in the seasons ahead.

“Mark appears to have the responsibility and authority of a sporting director at Rangers and I think they need that to genuinely deliver success,” he said. "You can have the best academy at producing talent in the world, but none of the players will ever make it if they aren’t given the opportunity.

“You need consistency at executive level, at director level to say ‘we need to be putting these kids in’. They need a loans programme to give them opportunities to get ready for the first team and to sell them if they aren’t going to make it.”