Peter Grant’s clownish comments play into an anti-Celtic narrative with nothing to credit it.

Yesterday I read with some astonishment the comments attributed to Peter Grant, where he said he wouldn’t sleep all summer if we lose at Ibrox and that it would take the shine off what Brendan Rodgers and his team have done for the rest of this season — i.e., the treble.

And this is why I sometimes wish that a couple of our former players would just shut it and stop embarrassing themselves.

This is a pro-Ibrox narrative he’s spouting here. I expect this kind of desperate talk from the likes of The Village Idiot and the dregs of the Ibrox fan forums. He sounds like one of those liberal politicians who throws around the word “woke” as an insult to fellow liberals. He needs to stop and think for two seconds about the garbage on the tip of his tongue before he says something like that. And just in case people think I’m exaggerating, here’s the quote:

“It doesn’t matter if you have won the league or not. You have to try and win this game and please believe me, it will be gut-wrenching if you don’t.”

It doesn’t matter if you’ve won the league or not?

Is he serious? Apparently so, because when he was asked if that’s really what he’s saying, that it would detract in some way from our title win he said “Absolutely.” Which is about as daft as anything that has come out of Hugh Keevins’ mouth in the past ten years. That’s the level he’s reached here.

What goes on in this guy’s head? I’ve heard a lot of people say that he’s not the sharpest tool in the box, and when you listen to him commentate on Celtic TV, sometimes it makes you want to smash your computer to smithereens.

But this is like a piss-take — although I know he was being deadly serious. It might be the most moronic thing I’ve heard someone say this year. And let’s be honest — there’s fierce competition.

Let me repeat what I said the other day: I still haven’t decided how much I care about the result of this game. It’s far from something that’s going to keep me up all summer long. I doubt I’ll be particularly bothered by the result, whatever it might be, because in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t mean a damned thing. I treat their games as I treat games against any other side. I expect to win them, but I don’t make them into do-or-die affairs — because they’re not.

Let me put it this way: even if we lose this game, not only have we won the league but we will win the league by a double-digit margin — and that’s after dropping 9 points to them. So I really don’t know who over there will take comfort from that.

I don’t know who will take any heart from it, but they are welcome to if it helps them sleep at night. But I know that I won’t lose one minute of sleep over it. Not one minute of sleep. These games simply aren’t that important anymore.

Or let me try to put it a different way: they are no more important than the games against any other side in this league.

You get 3 points for it — or you don’t. Either it moves you up in the league or it doesn’t. It either puts you in front by a greater margin or you lose a little ground. But we’ve already got over the line. It’s finished. So, the game, to us? I don’t know what you want me to say — it doesn’t mean a whole lot.

Grant comes from a generation filled with ex-players and ex-managers who’ve never stopped calling this an Old Firm game. That is, he comes from a generation that defines our club by the rivalry.

And that’s why the rivalry means more to him — and to certain people within that cohort — than the league title does.

Let me tell you something: I write about that club a lot, but I mostly do it to mark the way that they define themselves against us. They try to be the version of themselves that can beat us — even if it’s for one game, even if it’s for one trophy. And they don’t celebrate those things for their own sake, but for what they mean to us.

And I know there’s a certain element of our support which does define itself by how much damage we can do to them. I’m just not part of that segment. Would I trade four defeats against them next season for the league title? Damn right I would.

And I would celebrate it as I’ve celebrated the last four.

I’d celebrate it like I’ve celebrated 13 out of the last 14 — and I wouldn’t even hesitate.

Now, look, this isn’t to say the game doesn’t matter at all. I just don’t attach any particular significance to it, except for having lost the last twice. I would be concerned if the same team beat us three times in a row. I wouldn’t care which team it was — I would have the same concerns, and I’d be looking to the manager to come up with the answers either way.

Grant’s comments are ridiculous.

What he’s done is parrot pro-Ibrox talking points. And I know he’s done that unwillingly. I know he’s done it because he hasn’t thought through the words coming out of his mouth. I know he’s done it because he’s too stupid not to do it.

But none of that could matter less.

Those comments are profoundly idiotic, and he should have kept his mouth shut rather than make them. He’s made himself look like a fool.

Anyone who would trade a league title just to beat them in an almost meaningless game should be having nightmares.

He probably doesn’t deserve to sleep over the summer if that’s the kind of stuff that goes on in his head.