John Collins hopes the Celtic management team will get another crack at Europe next season.
Thursday's 2-1 defeat by Ajax kept the Scottish champions bottom of Europa League Group A with two points from five games and confirmed their exit from the tournament ahead of their visit to Fenerbahce next month.
Celtic have failed to qualify for the Champions League group stages under Ronny Deila's stewardship for two successive seasons - and have failed to win any of their last 10 Europa League matches.
Ahead of the trip to face Inverness live on Sky Sports on Sunday, Collins said: "Nothing is guaranteed - but I hope so.
"When you lose games of football, you are always going to be criticised, that's the nature of the business. We are no different to any management team anywhere in the world.
"Throughout every campaign, there have been aspects of the campaign we have liked, there have been positives but we have been punished in every game for our errors. I said it a long time ago, that's what happens when you play European football, you get punished."
Collins, who revealed Charlie Mulgrew will have a scan on the recurrence of a thigh injury, insisted Celtic will continue to invest in the developmet of young players.
The former Celtic midfielder said: "The only way to get better is by working harder, learning from your mistakes and sitting the test again. That's the way it works unless you have £20m or £100m like Manchester United and Barcelona, but we know we don't.
"So we have to learn and develop as we go along. We want to develop players and that it is the fun side of it but there is a frustrating side of it as well when you get beat.
"We haven't done as well as we have wanted, everyone is disappointed but we are not going to give up, we will keep trying to get better."
Meanwhile, Celtic have announced that Deloitte accountant Chris McKay will join their board as financial director from January 1.
McKay will replace Eric Riley, who resigns as financial director at the end of the year but will become a non-executive director for the following six months.