Champions League: What can Celtic learn from Aberdeen’s Almaty trip?

Should they need some advice, Aberdeen made the same journey on Europa League qualifying duty in 2015.

And the Scotland men’s national team also travelled to Kazakhstan in 2019, an ill-fated trip on which Alex McLeish’s side lost 3-0.

Speak to those at the Scottish FA about it and they make the logistics sound simple. “You fly there and back in a long-range Airbus or Boeing,” one said.

The plane Aberdeen hired a decade ago might as well have had ‘fly me to the moon’ branded along the fuselage.

It was – as a club insider recalled – different from the type they had used before for European away trips. Smaller, more luxurious.

“I believe it was used by the singer Tony Bennett and other celebrities,” they said.

It did not go too well on the football side, though, Aberdeen losing 2-1 away before a 1-1 draw at Pittodrie.

But that was not for a lack of attention to detail from then manager Derek McInnes and assistant Tony Docherty.

The Aberdeen squad – who stopped in Estonia on the way out and Turkey on the way back – had a steak dinner before flying out late on the Tuesday for a Thursday game.

The idea was that they could sleep on the plane, rather than travelling during the day, and they also all stayed on UK time to be better equipped to handle their subsequent league game a few days later.

Kenny McLean’s late winner over Dundee United at Tannadice suggests they might have had the right idea.