Celtic’s magnificent victory yesterday in the League Cup final is more impressive than it looks on the surface, which is simply to examine the game as a one-off match.
Do that and our superiority stands out a mile.
Put it into the big picture and it’s a lot more.
What makes the achievement all the greater is that our nearly unblemished domestic record has been secured in the first half of a season where in addition to a League Cup run and SPL duties we’ve played eleven times in European competition, including the high-stress matches away at Astana and Beersheba? We’ve also been to Gibraltar, Barcelona and Monchengladbach.
To have secured a trophy and be this far ahead in the league under such a punishing schedule is remarkable. Absolutely remarkable. With us no longer being in Europe, the number of games we play from now on should drop off appropriately; this means longer periods between matches, greater rest for the players and less pressure every week.
How is anyone going to stop us winning the treble?
Without being arrogant, without getting complacent – the manager will not allow either, I suspect – the question is wholly legitimate. If we haven’t buckled under this glut of games, early in the season, who realistically thinks we’ll crack once the Champions League is out of the way?
I don’t care how good a team is, domestic football almost always suffers when a team is playing midweek in Europe. Traveling long distances takes it out of legs already weary. There are psychological aspects to playing one night in front of a full house in the Nou Camp – and being turned over – to then traveling home to play a tough match in Inverness. This is what cost us our only points of the season so far, a result I do believe was more about getting over a psychological shock than it was about anything else.
I think it’s telling that Brendan still smarts over that result today.
He sets such high standards for this team, and the players respond accordingly of course. That was clear in the performances of every one of them. This is a special time to be a Celtic fan, this is a special thing he’s building. The full scale of what his vision for the club is won’t be known to us for a while yet, but we trust it.
The first proofs of it are in the Celtic Park trophy room already.
But in point of fact, as we all well know, they’ve been evident already in a hundred little ways. They’ve been there in the performances in big games, in the attitudes of our players, some of whom have had to adapt to a new system and others – like Leigh – who have had to be patient and might have to be for a while to come.
This is a club transforming before our eyes.
This time last year I asked who the next set of heroes who’s flags would grace the famous Celtic Way were going to be and where they were going to come from.
That question is progressing towards a highly satisfactory answer.