Tonight a lot of people will be heading to Celtic Park nursing grievance and frustration.
Please guys and gals, leave them at the door. Tonight isn’t about them, whatever they are and whatever their source. There are battles in front of the Celtic support, a lot of them, some from avenues close to home, which is something I write with no pleasure at all.
Yet even with the heaviest heart, you can’t help but be swept up in what we’re about to embark on; another Champions League night and a step closer to where we want to be as a club; on the biggest stage in football, with another pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
And the team we have is the best we’ve had at Celtic Park in many, many years.
It bristles with firepower.
It plays wonderful, attractive, exciting football.
It is managed by one of the finest coaches in Europe.
We’re protecting the wonderful legacy of last year’s unbeaten treble.
There’s nothing not to like, except for some off-field nonsense.
But that doesn’t impact on tonight. It doesn’t make this less important or a less special occasion. So from now until full-time let’s put it all to one side, and enjoy the simple fact of being Celtic fans on a big European night. Let the Champions League anthem be what soothes away all the extraneous nonsense and gets us back in the mood.
We’ll probably do it without a recognised striker on the park; that means the manager is the most important person in the ground tonight, because his decision on how we should approach this game in light of that will be a deciding factor in what the result is.
Fortunately there are options; Hayes, Sinclair, Forrest … and if you believe one report today, even Tom Rogic is being considered as our front man.
Whatever the line-up, this is Celtic at home.
This is Fortress Parkhead.
Better teams than this have come here, withered and died. I feel we need to give ourselves a cushion for the next leg, so I am hoping for a win of at least two goals. Hapoel last year was one of the earliest demonstrations that this team was capable of playing mesmerising football … I expect the same again .
Enjoy it folks.
Believe me, those who are sniggering up their sleeves at today’s SPFL announcement would swap places with us in two seconds flat tonight.
Theirs is the slightly hysterical, weepy, forced laughter of the loser.
We’ll know the line-up soon enough, and from there it’s into battle we go.
I’ll see you all on the other side of it.
Hail Hail.