Neither Rodgers nor Celtic knows what “panic” is. No wonder he laughed it off.

The story today is that Brendan Rodgers has reacted with lazy amusement to the notion that people at Celtic might have been getting nervous about dropping points in Dundee. This is a manager who has heard it all before, and in the time since his return to Celtic Park, the criticism of him has been beyond ridiculous. The attacks on the team whenever they fall short of perfection have been even worse. But this latest round, he notes, is a new low.

There are people in our media who simply cannot wait for us to fail, defining “failure” in all sorts of absurd and arbitrary ways. Hugh Keevins, the perpetual embarrassment, reduces it to the starkest terms: failure is anytime we don’t win. If the Ibrox side strings together more than two wins in a row, the press suddenly becomes giddy with excitement, as if something seismic is unfolding.

This has been the hallmark of the past fortnight. Ibrox’s brilliant four-game winning streak in the league is being celebrated as if it’s a landmark achievement—because for them, it is. Celtic, by comparison, has already gone on two separate seven-win runs this season, separated only by a couple of draws. That’s why we are 17 games in and sitting 12 points clear at the top of the league.

Let’s be blunt: a team that can’t manage five wins in a row isn’t worth much. Yet the press froths over Ibrox’s “great form,” only for it to come crashing down, as it did on Sunday. Meanwhile, Celtic receives scant credit even when playing well. And when we’re not at our best—when we’re, to use their favourite expression, “grinding out results”—the critics get downright gleeful.

It’s worth noting that our so-called “poor performances” in the league, which still yielded points before Dundee, coincided with Ibrox’s best run of form. That’s likely why so many people were getting excited; they thought we were slowing down just as their team was picking up momentum.

But the idea that this team, or its manager, ever panics is laughable. Rodgers is one of the coolest operators in the business, and this is one of the most composed Celtic sides I’ve ever seen. Consider the evidence: two high-stakes penalty shootouts in the past year.

Five perfect penalties against Ibrox in one, and against Aberdeen, a near-flawless display with only Joe Hart missing his spot kick. Was this because of practice? Perhaps. But I believe it’s because this team thrives under pressure—it’s when they’re at their best.

Rodgers himself has said as much. Towards the end of last season, he pointed out that Celtic performs at its peak when the stakes are highest—when every game is a must-win, and the trophies and titles are up for grabs. He’s absolutely right. Our best run last season came in the final quarter, when the pressure was on, and we needed to deliver. And deliver we did.

There’s no panic in this team. That’s why, when Arne Engels said last week that even if Aberdeen had scored their penalty in the cup final, he believed we’d have gone on to win, I completely agreed. This is a team of iron will, a team made of sterner stuff than anything at Ibrox.

Contrast that with what happens when you put their players under pressure. They crumble. They had a sniff of an opportunity after our draw, but when it came to doing something about it, their bottle crashed. This is a team of cowards and losers who don’t know how to win under pressure. Their recent success came because no one expected anything of them. The moment there were expectations, they folded like a deck of cards.

Want to see panic? Look at Robin Proper against St Mirren when their big lad beat him to the ball. Look at Cyriel Dessers in any big moment of a big game.

But Rodgers and panic? This Celtic team and panic? Not in this lifetime. Remember, this is the man who took his team to Ibrox for the first game of last season with half a defence, all eyes on him, and the expectation that we’d not only lose but lose heavily. He rallied the troops, devised a plan, and walked away with three points.

Someone told me at the time that before that game, we hadn’t seen the smiling, confident Rodgers of old. But after it, it was like he’d never been away. That was always Brendan Rodgers. Calm under pressure. Resolute in the face of stress. Sticking to the plan and getting the job done.

No wonder he laughed at the idea of panic. It’s absolutely ludicrous.