1OO points for Celtic this season? Mission: Difficult. Not quite impossible.

As things stand right now, this is going to be an historic season for the club. But how close are we to another of those milestones which we’ve racked up in recent years? In short; is it possible that this will be a 100 points campaign?

The short answer is yes, it’s possible. But there’s not much margin for error.

Racking up 100 points is incredibly rare. It’s a testament to our strength as a club that we’ve managed to do it on a couple of occasions. Only a handful of clubs in European football can boast such sustained dominance, and we are in a strong position to do it again this season, albeit this will be tough.

As of today, Celtic sits on 75 points from 29 matches, with nine games remaining. To break the 100-point barrier, we need another 25 points—eight wins and a draw—which is well within our grasp. We’ve hit runs of form like that. I understand why no-one at the club wants to talk much about it, but that we’re here with just nine games left and still in with a chance shows how well we’ve played.

The team is in superb form, boasting the best attack and the best defence in the league. If we keep up our current trajectory, there’s every reason to believe we will finish as centurions once more.

The 100-point mark is one of the hallmarks of absolute league dominance. Only the best teams, those that don’t just win leagues but crush the opposition beneath their boots, are capable of it. Celtic has hit this milestone only twice before:

The first time was in the 2001–02 season, in O’Neill’s second campaign. In that one, we managed 103 points, with 33 wins, 4 draws and a single loss. We scored 94 goals in the league, conceded 18 and had a goal difference at the end of plus 76.

This was a Celtic side that was virtually unstoppable. Under Martin O’Neill, the club swept all before it, finishing 18 points ahead of Rangers in second place. Henrik Larsson was at the peak of his powers, scoring for fun, and the defence was rock solid. The only blemish on an otherwise flawless campaign was a single defeat all season, against Aberdeen, in December of 2001.

Our 33 wins that season set a record. A record we would ultimately be the ones to break, although it took 15 years to do it. But when we did … wow.

Brendan Rodgers’ first season at Celtic was the stuff of legend.

The Invincibles went the full campaign without losing a single match, a feat never before achieved. Moussa Dembélé, Scott Sinclair, and Stuart Armstrong were amongst the players in our side who ran riot, scoring 106 goals along the way, while the team maintained a solid defensive shape.

We secured 106 points that year, with 34 wins, four draws and no reversals at all. We conceded a mere 25 across the league campaign, giving us a goal difference of plus 81. As good as O’Neil’s achievement was, that put it in the shade.

We’ve come close on a number of occasions; Ange’s treble winning side came within a point of it. But only O’Neill and Rodgers have so far completed the feat, and both did so in a treble winning season. It’s just so incredibly difficult to do. A team’s consistency needs to be absolutely immense to achieve it.

But fast forward to today, and Celtic is once again on track to join that elite list of teams. Our 75 points comes from 24 wins, 3 draws and just two losses. With 87 goals scored, and averaging around three a game, we’re definitely a good bet to score 100 plus. We’ve also only conceded 17 … we’re probably not going to beat the O’Neill team’s record there, but we we’ll still post a healthy goal difference which right now sits at plus 70.

With nine matches left, if Celtic can win eight and draw one, we will cross the threshold once again. Given our form, that looks like a realistic objective. But we need to up our game away from home. At Celtic Park I can see us doing what we need to.

Brendan Rodgers has done this before though. He knows what it takes to keep a team winning, and he has managed this squad brilliantly despite juggling the full domestic schedule and the pressures of more European football than we’ve traditionally had to play. Under his leadership, we have seen the return of a dominant, attacking Celtic side that knows how to grind out results when needed.

The current squad is full of winners. Daizen Maeda is having his best ever season, Idah is a big game striker and with guys like Jota and Nicolas Kühn weighing in from the wide positions and our top guys running the midfield, we’re in good shape in the top half of the pitch. Add to that the defence, marshalled by Cameron Carter-Vickers, Austin Trusty and Kasper Schmeichel, and you can see that there’s a chance.

Celtic Park is once again a fortress. We have dominated most of our home games, making it difficult for any visiting team to take points off us. Crucially, although we’ve had a recent blip in form away we’ve proved, in the first half of the season, that we’re capable of winning consistently away as well.

The ability to rotate players has kept the squad fresh. Rodgers has managed to use his full squad effectively, ensuring key players remain fit and ready for the final run-in.

There are always people who argue that this sort of thing isn’t important, that the only thing that matters is winning the title. And, of course, every single one of us would take the trophy over hitting 100 points. If it came down to it and we had to sacrifice something to reach that milestone, nobody would trade silverware for it. That’s a given.

But the accomplishment itself is so rare, so difficult, and so remarkable that if we could manage it, it would be something truly special. Only a handful of teams in world football have ever achieved this feat, and the fact that Celtic has done it multiple times already is a testament to just how dominant we have been. Doing it again would reinforce that supremacy and put another stamp of authority on this era of success.

With nine games to go, the equation is simple: eight wins and a draw will see us over the line. It’s a big ask, of course it is. But we were in virtually the same position heading into the final stretch last season—and not only did we manage it, we did so in a way that made the run-in feel like a procession. That campaign ended with a league and cup double.

This time, a 100-point season would set us up perfectly for something even greater: another treble.

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