The media still fails to recognise Celtic’s power. What Ibrox does doesn’t matter a damn.

One of the most chilling lines ever spoken on TV comes in Season 5 of the quite magnificent show The Shield, about a group of LA cops who are, more or less, criminals with badges.

There’s a scene where a senior officer sits down in a jail visiting room with a major gangster to cut a deal for a man heading to prison. The gangster makes it clear from the start that he is the real power behind bars. As he assures the cop, “Wherever (he) lands, he will land in my backyard,” unless the cop does him a big favour, the prisoner will face very unpleasant consequences. The most chilling line comes when the gangster states, “I will decide his quality of life.”

That phrase came to mind when I read that Hugh Keevins and others are already backtracking on their predictions for how this title race will go.

And I wonder what part of this they’ve missed. Because while they seem focused on Ibrox, this race was never about what happens there—it’s about what happens at Celtic Park. They’re five points behind because we’ve beaten them and we’ve maintained a perfect record in the league. The fact is, we’ve won every game so far this season.

This title race is not in their hands. It never has been. It doesn’t matter if they improve or not. For the race to even become close again, we’d have to stumble. We’d have to sleep at the wheel. We’d have to fall apart.

I was going to talk about this yesterday, but today seems like a better day—now that we’ve already banked three points and they’ve got a tough game against Hibs. Don’t get me wrong, I expect them to win. Though if they don’t, I’ll enjoy watching the fallout and you can bet that a Fear & Loathing piece will up shortly thereafter.

The fact I don’t really care much either way should tell its own story.

We’re setting the pace. We’re the team to beat.

We have the better players, the better manager, more money in the bank, and all the advantages that come with that. Is this title race suddenly alive again because a hapless side from Ibrox beat an equally hapless one in Sweden? Correct me if I’m wrong, but how does that change any of the objective facts? Does it make us weaker? Does it diminish our talent or pace? Does it close the gap in any meaningful way?

These people never quite grasp it. That club and its usual media apologists have been deluding themselves all summer long that they threw away last year’s league title and a “potential treble.” What nonsense. Anyone who watched how Celtic finished the season knows it wasn’t a case of Ibrox handing the title over. We reached out and took it.

We had to be better than every other side in the country, and we were. Once we hit our stride, we simply pulled away from them. We won the league by 8 points and had a superior goal difference of plus ten. The table reflected our dominance. If not for the mid-season slump and the loss of two games in one week, the gap would have been even bigger.

Yet we still hear the same drivel in the press—how Ibrox squandered some big opportunity. They won’t acknowledge that we were just better and the opportunity only existed on paper, but never in the real world where they still had to come to Celtic Park and win.

Our team was better, our manager was better, and our form was better. We’re simply superior to them as a club. So, when they talk about the Ibrox club being back in the race or looking like they can compete, it’s nonsense. Sure, they’ve shown they can beat teams around them and even win an away match in Europe, but a title race isn’t determined by a couple of matches.

Sooner or later, they’ll have to face us. That’s when their coach-and-four turns into a pumpkin and handful of scurrying mice again.

The same people drooling over Ibrox’s so-called improvement are the ones who admit they’re lucky not to have drawn Celtic in the League Cup semi-final, knowing that would have killed any dreams they have. They can fantasise all they like that a couple of wins makes them contenders, but contenders in every sport eventually get a look at the real competition.

And right now, Celtic is that competition.

For them to catch us, it’s not enough that they improve slightly. Even if they have—and I’m not convinced they have or will—Ibrox does this periodically. They win a few games, the media goes nuts, and they all pat themselves on the back.

Then the next crisis inevitably arrives.

The reality is, for them to catch us, we’d have to make massive errors within our own walls. Until that happens, Celtic controls the fate of the Ibrox club. Unless we fall apart in a significant way, we will decide their quality of life.