Celtic’s job today is simple. Start 2025 the same way we finished 2024. Dominant.

2024 was an exceptional year for this club.

Honestly, go and look at the records: losing only two games in the calendar year, including six Champions League group-stage matches, and winning every domestic trophy. That’s a fairly unique achievement. I’m under no illusions that 2025 will be as good as 2024, but it certainly has to start well—and that begins today.

It amazes me that we’re going to Ibrox today with many feeling as if we’ve got something to prove. We don’t. We proved it all in the last 12 months.

But credit for that has been in very short supply. I understand why—this time last year, plenty of hacks were gearing up to anoint Philippe Clement as the king of Scottish football. Many of them have been left with egg on their faces because it didn’t turn out the way they thought it would.

Rodgers, too, had people second-guessing him the moment he walked back through the doors of Celtic Park. And I don’t mean the Celtic fans, because the idea that there was widespread discontent among them about his return is pure fiction. It’s a narrative spun by those with a vested interest in creating drama.

Yes, there were one or two holdouts—people who were late to the idea of accepting Rodgers back. But that was a very small number. Most fans understood that if we wanted to win, we needed a winner—and Rodgers is exactly that.

Over the last 12 months, not only has he silenced the media critics, but he’s also silenced the tiny handful of doubters in the Celtic support. He’s done it by delivering football that, in some ways, is even better than what we saw under Ange.

Rodgers is ruthless in a way Ange wasn’t. He’s far more determined to win and win well, against all opponents. But he has a clear fascination with fixtures against the Ibrox club, and his record is stellar.

So, with all that in mind, why does it feel as if some people think we’ve got something to prove today? Because some of the games against them have been close in the past year? Because the cup final was close? We’ve gotten the results that mattered when they mattered.

The 3–3 draw at Ibrox—one of those allegedly close games—virtually secured us the title. The Scottish Cup and League Cup were both won, albeit not as comfortably as we might have liked. But the pattern is clear: when the pressure is on, when this team needs to deliver, it does. We have the mental strength. We have the quality. Those are the things that matter.

I don’t believe we have anything to prove.

I believe Clement can sometimes get a tune out of his team by forcing them to confront the abyss of heavy defeat. But he hasn’t done enough on any of those occasions, and I don’t expect him to do enough today—even though last week’s results rendered this game virtually meaningless.

We have nothing to prove. The trophies are all at Celtic Park, where they belong. A 14-point lead didn’t happen by accident; it happened because we’ve been exceptional. Rodgers is now six games undefeated against Clement. That also didn’t happen by accident.

If they want to cling to their hard-luck stories, to the “nearly but not quite” narrative, that’s up to them. That’s how you build a club with a loser mentality. We don’t have that at Celtic Park because we don’t look at things that way.

Look at our captain, Callum McGregor, speaking to the media yesterday.

He reminded everyone that we won the cup final, but he also said the players weren’t happy with how they played. They want to dig deeper, find ways to improve, and be more impressive this time. Contrast that with a dressing room that spends its time talking about how well they played or how they deserved to win despite not actually doing so. That difference is mentality says it all.

When winners focus on wanting to win more comprehensively and losers focus on hard-luck excuses, it’s no wonder we’re so far ahead of them. As good as 2024 was for us, it was an unmitigated disaster for the club across the city. And although I don’t expect 2025 to match 2024 in brilliance, I still expect us to win a domestic treble. For them, 2025 could be even worse.

Our job today is simple: start with a win and put them in crisis.

Ensure 2025 begins as 2024 ended, with Celtic on top, making it clear where the power in Scottish football lies. That will give us a foundation to build on for the rest of the year, deliver a hammer blow to the Ibrox club, and leave them with even more questions than they ended last year with.

We have the better manager. We have the better players.

Even if they were to field their strongest XI, I’d still fancy us to win today. We need to show up and do the little things right. This is what this team is built for. This is what the manager lives for: days like today.

So, best foot forward, Celtic.

Let’s start 2025 as we mean to go on, building on the incredible work of 2024—with the added bonus that if we do our job well today, we might just cost the Ibrox boss his. And although their fans might think that would herald a brave new dawn, I think they’re only kidding themselves. Glasgow’s Green and White, and that’s how it’s staying for the foreseeable future, and I don’t mean the next few months. I’m talking years here. Their pain hasn’t even started yet.

Our fifth podcast episode, The Back Of The Net, is out. Please like, share and enjoy.