12 months ago, it was still possible – only just possible – for the club from Ibrox to kid itself and its fans that this version of Celtic might be temporary. They feared that we were heading for the title, having recently leapfrogged them in the league, but they had convinced themselves that we had not won it as much as that they had thrown it away.
When we destroyed them at Celtic Park earlier this season I think a lot of things started to click into place. But even when we assumed a nine point lead I think there were some of them who still did not believe that it represented our superiority.
It wasn’t until Hampden, and the League Cup Final result, which hit them like a tsunami, that the penny finally dropped for many of them. And it was not until this result yesterday that their forums began to talk, with weary acceptance, of preferring to face this team in the semi-final rather than get to cup final day and watch as we won the treble.
This no longer seems like surrender talk for many of them, merely an acknowledgement that right now, at this minute, that we might be just too good. There are larger implications here, but I won’t go into them in this piece; they’re for later.
But it’s starting to dawn on them they are going to need to assemble a team quickly over the summer and that this team will need to be damned good, because our form is exceptional. Even accounting for the Invincible Treble season no-one can remember seeing a Celtic team this strong, this relentless, this driven and ruthless.
I’ll talk about those larger implications in an article later on today, but even in the here and now it is impossible for them to deny that we have something special going on here, with an incredibly talented team full of players of daring and brilliance.
They do not like it. Some of them continue to tell themselves that this Celtic side is not as great as is being made out, but even they are willing to admit – because what other choice do they have? – that this team is far better than their own.
They are stunned at the way Ange has transformed us in a very short time, so short a time that some of them feel a little whiplashed. With his comments last week, the one hope they had – that he might not be around next season – was snatched away.
They might have moronic fan reps and “investors” feeding them a lot of bull about how we bought our way here, but even if that’s true many of them accept that our transfer business has been stellar and they can see a summer of uncertainty at their club which doesn’t exist at ours. Even if we lost a couple of key players, they know those players would go for big bucks and they’ve watched Alastair Johnston enough to know we’d bring more quality in.
So they know that next season won’t be easy for them no matter what they’re able to do. Because what they see when they look across at Celtic now is something that runs like a well-oiled machine. A Celtic that never stops.
HAPPY HAPPY DAYS YNWA
I, and I know plenty of Celtic fans like myself, also hope that Celtic get them in the semis in case they beat US in the final, so it is not all one way. It is just the fact that if you are going to get beat you might as well get beat before the big occasion.
I don’t think the true strengths of this Celtic team will be known until they play in Europe.
I’m excited about not only the way Celtic are getting better and better. They attack like a pack of animals whether it’s going forward or hunting the ball down but big Ange is always pushing for more. He said after the first encounter against Hearts midweek that he wasn’t happy with the performance yet we put them to the sword. We’re gonna do the same to THAT LOT whether it’s in the semi-final or the final itself but we’re hunting them down and they know it.
The scum have nothing left but in trying to prevent another treble and the fear of that happening is sending the DOBs more deranged than usual, if indeed that is even possible.
On the bigger picture the fear is far greater as a huge rebuild is required and all without a pot to piss in either, and all the while we are sitting pretty with the depth of quality squad we currently have.
It’s no surprise that the scum want and need to see the back of Ange, as himself along with his team will continue to rub the noses of the scum within there own shite, semi or the final doesn’t matter to us, and for the foreseeable also
Pride comes before a fall as the saying goes. They are nowhere near as pleasing on the eye as us, nor are they as good as us, but they still have a competent group of players. They were slaughtered for not living up to the unrealistic hype at Hampden, but they weren’t as bad as some have suggested and shouldn’t be taken lightly. They’ll also have their 12th man on the pitch and a 13th man back at VAR headquarters. On the other hand they’ll have a big chunk of their starting 11 on their last hurrah with their heads out the door if not their bodies.
Don’t get me wrong, I expect us to win and I can make a good case for it being a tanking but nobody should be taking it for a given.
This guy Khan is correct I said earlier we’re hunting them down but we have to remember whether it’s league business or a cup tie, it’s still an Old Firm game and like Hearts their season hinges on this competition. Having said that Celtic with the right approach and I’m sure Ange will have them fired up should be a Celtic victory.
You haven’t been keeping up Michael. There is no “Old Firm”! ?
You haven’t been keeping up Michael. There is no “Old Firm”! ?