This team is built on a handful of people who exemplify what Celtic is about.

On Friday, the Celtic boss talked about his team, and he praised three of its outstanding performers: Kyogo, Maeda, and McGregor. I listened intently to everything Brendan had to say, as I always do when he’s speaking, because Brendan always makes sense. What impressed me most about his comments was that, time and again, he emphasized the virtues of the team above all else.

When he spoke about Callum McGregor, he highlighted Callum’s exceptional leadership and humility. He mentioned, and I was glad he did, the moment when Luke McCowan came on the pitch to make his debut. The first thing Callum did was to go over and have a word in his ear.

Rodgers revealed that Callum reassured him with, “The team is backing you; just play your game and enjoy it.” That’s exceptional. It shows Callum’s strength as a captain, but Brendan was also talking about a mentality that runs throughout the squad—a sense of togetherness and a desire to win and push forward as a group.

Sometimes, when you watch the club across town or listen to their players speak, you are struck by the absence of that same sense of unity or collective spirit.

It’s remarkable how Celtic has managed to bring so many disparate parts together into one cohesive unit. That takes exceptional leadership, but it also means having the right ingredients: team players who aren’t glory hunters and who understand that the strength of the team comes first. If the team wins, they win; it’s not about personal glory, the number of goals you score, or anything like that—it’s all about what the unit achieves.

It’s almost a militaristic style of discipline.

Successful teams often talk about this—the top sides don’t worry about what’s going on in the stands, what’s being said in the media, or transfer rumours. When they are on that pitch, they are playing for one another. Every player is backing up every other player, and there is a collective understanding that success comes from that. It’s not about the money or the adulation of the fans; it’s this desire to be the best that drives them.

When a whole team is filled with such characters—players who believe in and work for each other—that becomes an incredible force. That’s why these guys can go to places like Ibrox, in front of a hostile crowd, and still find the aggression and energy to win points.

It’s why they play until the last minute of a cup final, with everyone believing in and working for everyone else, anticipating each other’s moves. That comes from great leadership, but it also comes from the individual characteristics of every team member.

We’ve been fortunate to have great leaders at the club in recent years.

It’s not just about having elite managers like Ange and Brendan; we’ve also had two exceptional Celtic greats as captains in that time.

When I worry about the future, it’s about how we replace Rodgers as the next manager, and how we replace Callum McGregor as captain when the time comes. There is a synergy at Celtic right now that comes from having guys like that in leadership positions, people who understand and care about the club and can transmit that passion to those around them.

I’m often critical of the mentality over at Ibrox, and the idea that some of their fans have about needing more “real Rangers men.” On the surface, it’s ludicrous, isn’t it? Our squad includes players from Japan, Canada, England, Belgium, and Germany—players who probably hadn’t heard much about Celtic or knew little about the club when they joined. Yet, when we watch them, you get the undeniable impression that they all “get it.”

So, maybe there’s some truth in the idea that a truly good, winning team needs a core group of players who understand what it means to play for the club and make other players into believers. It certainly helps to have exceptional managers who get it.

If there’s one positive thing to say about our coaching staff, it’s that they understand what’s called “institutional memory.”

These guys have been at the club for a long time, and that has both positive and negative aspects. The most positive aspect is that they can pass along what they know—their experience, passion, and commitment—to the players. We shouldn’t knock that.

When I see Alex Rae sitting in the Ibrox dugout, I want to laugh because, frankly, Alex Rae is a clown. Anyone who has ever heard him being interviewed knows we’re not talking about one of the great intellects of Scottish history here.

But it’s not completely daft to have a guy there who “gets” the club, even if the lessons he’s trying to teach are the wrong ones.

The modern mindset at Celtic is overwhelmingly positive and solely focused on success. Every player who walks through the door knows they carry that expectation every single week. That must be tough across the city, where these guys are expected to win without any real experience of having done so. We have players at our club who have won a dozen honours or more—James Forrest has won twice that!

These guys know how to handle that pressure, and as McGregor showed when he pulled McCowan aside as he came onto the pitch last weekend, they help other players handle it too.

That kind of culture can’t be bought. You can’t just buy 11 players, fill a dressing room, and expect to get that. The seeds of it have to be there. They have to be planted and allowed to grow. It doesn’t just happen on its own.

Our good fortune isn’t just about the line of managers we’ve had who understand this, like Brendan, Lenny, and Ange. We’ve had tremendously strong leaders on the pitch as well—players who came up through this environment.

There’s a lot to be said for having a Scottish captain who loves this club dearly. One of my favourite ironies, if you believe the chatter, is that our last two great captains supposedly had a preference for the club across the city when they were younger. I don’t know if that’s true, and I don’t care if it is. They wouldn’t be the first, and they won’t be the last. I know their passion for Celtic and their love for this club is as strong as any boyhood Celtic fan’s.

Because this is a special football club, and these are special people. These are great days we’re living in. One doesn’t make the other, but it enhances it.

Blend them all together, and that’s when you get history-making teams doing history-making things, sweeping all before them.

At the heart of it all is one central concept: the team, the team, the team. If our rivals had even a fraction of that devotion to a cause, they wouldn’t be in the mess they’re in right now. And I don’t know how they rebuild that or if they ever get it back.