Martin O’Neill has admitted Celtic are "a million miles from the finished article" after their Champions League exit.
The team crashed out of the play-offs despite having a four-goal aggregate lead against LASK, losing 5-1 on the night. This marks Celtic's sixth consecutive failure to qualify for the Champions League.
O’Neill took responsibility for the collapse but acknowledged the threat posed by the Austrian side. He said: "The game comes pretty early for us in that sense. I’ve known this from the past, way back, years ago, when we tried to qualify.
"Teams that you think you might be able to beat will cause you a problem. I think the Austrian side are a fine team. They’ve got pace, they’ve got a bit of strength, they’ve got a bit of power about them.
"But in all honesty, we should have seen it through."
Celtic had focused on quality rather than quantity in the summer transfer window after a major turnover of players, but the lack of depth was exposed as LASK turned the tie around.
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O’Neill was forced into makeshift solutions for the return leg in Linz, with Liam Scales deployed at left-back following Kieran Tierney’s withdrawal. By stoppage time, Celtic had four central defenders on the pitch.
There was also no natural defensive-midfield option to support Callum McGregor. O’Neill added: "What these games show you is that we have a lot of work to do in that aspect.
"You can cover over cracks at certain stages, but overall these games are real tests. And unfortunately, we failed that test.
"We know that we are a million miles from the finished article. That’s absolutely true. I think we thought that anyway, regardless."
The Champions League failure could now also complicate Celtic’s recruitment plans during the final week of the transfer window. O’Neill said: "I said last week that if you could qualify for the Champions League, there would be players that would want to come on that very basis.
"That’s not going to be the case, but we’ll see."
