When does a problem become chronic? When it happens half a dozen times in a row?
Celtic's failure to negotiate Champions League qualifying has now cursed them six times in succession. LASK of Austria join a list that comprises Kairat Almaty, Midtjylland, Ferencvaros, Cluj and AEK Athens.
With the possible exception of the Greeks, all clubs Celtic should expect to beat. That they couldn't speaks to something structurally or strategically wrong at the club.
At that frequency, these are not accidents or freaks of nature. Very far from it.
If you have cash reserves at the bank, would you not be better investing some of it early enough to give you a fighting chance of recouping it from Uefa's land of milk and honey?
Or do you wait to see what European competition you're playing in before spending any money you haven't already taken in from player sales?
It's the kind of 'rinse and repeat' that has Celtic fans tearing their hair out. It was the same scenario a year ago when Brendan Rodgers was crying out for reinforcements. None came, of any great note, until after the Kairat catastrophe.
Of course, it's not that Celtic don't spend money. They do. By the tens of millions every summer. How and when they spend it has been the problem.
It tends to be balanced against assets sold. Acquire £25 for Kieran Tierney? Spend it. Bank similar sums for Jota and Matt O'Riley, sanction similar cheques. Move on Daizen Maeda and Arne Engels? Bring in Camilo Duran, Kasper Hogh, Mika Baur and Haissem Hassan. Good, solid business.
Except for one thing. When the biggest games of your season routinely happen in mid-August, do you not need to have spent even bigger, if the money is available, to maximise your Champions League chances?
It's the speed and scope of Celtic's recruitment that seems consistently to let them down, rather than the amount of money spent.
Martin O'Neill's new deal was agreed in early June, before the transfer window opened on the 15th. Celtic therefore two months to get players in before the Champions League play-off signing deadline.
They brought in four. None of them in a depleted defence, nor a defensive-minded midfielder to compensate for the loss of Arne Engels and Paulo Bernardo.
Celtic look fairly well set in forward areas but wide open at the back. Hence LASK helping themselves to an extraordinary 60 shots in two games.
As it did a year ago, the club's decision not to get the bulk of their transfer business done early enough has blown up in their face.
And with the route into the competition becoming ever more difficult from next summer when three rounds need to be negotiated by the Premiership winners, when will Celtic play Champions League football again?
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