GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - MAY 17: Celtic's Callum McGregor and Manager Brendan Rodgers lift the trophy during a William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and St Mirren at Celtic Park, on May 17, 2025, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Alan Harvey/SNS Group via Getty Images)
For weeks now, the narrative around Celtic has been hardening.
You can hear it in the tone of the coverage. You can see it in the headlines. The language has shifted from concern to judgement. This is a team that’s tired. A team that’s fading. A team that’s already run its race.
In short, the story being told is simple: Celtic are done.
That’s the media narrative. And right now, Celtic have twelve games left to destroy it.
Because that’s what this stage of the season is about. It’s not just about points. It’s about momentum and perception. About reminding everyone what this club does when the pressure tightens and the margins shrink.
There are twelve matches left. Twelve opportunities to change the story.
And history tells us something important about Celtic at this point in a campaign.
This is when they usually come alive.
For all the noise around the squad, for all the legitimate concerns about recruitment, depth and decision-making, one thing hasn’t changed. This is still a group of players who know what it means to win a title. This is still a dressing room full of players who’ve been over the course before. That matters.
Because the difference between teams who chase titles and teams who win them is rarely tactical. It’s psychological. What it comes down to is belief when the games get tight. It’s about composure when the pressure rises. It’s about finding a way to win when the performance isn’t perfect.
Celtic have built their domestic dominance on exactly that quality.
Late goals. Narrow wins. Ugly victories when the football isn’t flowing. Those moments don’t happen by accident. They come from a mentality that refuses to settle for anything less than three points.
And over the next twelve games, that mentality will matter more than anything else.
The media will talk about fatigue. They’ll talk about inconsistency. They’ll talk about a squad that isn’t what it was.
All of that may be true.
But titles are not won by perfect squads. They’re won by teams who handle the run-in better than everyone else.
Right now, the pressure isn’t unique to Celtic. Every team in the race is feeling it. Every dropped point changes the mood. Each late goal shifts the momentum. Every result reshapes the conversation.
That’s why the narrative matters.
Because once the story becomes that a team is wobbling, every mistake gets magnified. Every poor half becomes evidence. Every narrow win gets framed as survival rather than control. The only way to change that is the simplest way in football. Win.
Win the next game. Then the one after that. Put a run together. Turn tension into inevitability.
The media narrative doesn’t change overnight. It changes when results force it to.
And Celtic have done this before.
There have been seasons when the football wasn’t convincing. Seasons when the squad looked stretched. Seasons when the noise around the club was loud and negative.
Then the run-in came. Then the points started stacking up and the story shifted from doubt to inevitability.
That’s the opportunity in front of this team now.
Because for all the talk about decline, the table still says the race is alive. The margins are still small. The title is still there to be taken.
Twelve games is not a long time. It’s a sprint.
And sprint finishes tend to favour teams who’ve been there before.
Teams who understand the rhythm of a run-in. Teams who don’t panic when games are tight and nerves start to show.
That experience is something Celtic still have.
What they need now is clarity.
In that dressing room everything else is set aside. No distractions or talk about long-term rebuilds or summer plans.
No arguments about what should have happened in January.
None of that matters anymore. This is about ninety minutes at a time.
Win the home games. Stay solid away. Keep the pressure on. Force the other teams to match you every week. Because pressure works both ways.
Right now, the narrative says Celtic are fading. But if they put together a run, that narrative flips quickly. Then the question becomes whether their rivals can keep up. Then the tension moves elsewhere. Football is brutally simple like that.
Momentum doesn’t just affect results. It affects belief. Inside the dressing room. In the stands. In the coverage. A team that looks fragile one week can look inevitable three weeks later. That’s what these final twelve games are really about.
Not proving the media wrong. That will take care of itself. This is about proving something to themselves.
That the standards haven’t dropped. That the mentality is still there. That when the season reaches its sharpest edge, Celtic still know how to handle it.
If they do that, the narrative won’t need arguing with.
It will disappear on its own.
Because twelve games is enough time to collapse.
But for this club, historically, it’s also been more than enough time to remind everyone exactly who they are. Winners.
As I have said before James, under normal circumstances your winning mentality claim is very important and very relevant. However, normal circumstances do not apply here, there are too many new faces and too many old tired apathetic faces for that winning mentality to come to the fore. It’s in the lap of the Gods to be honest, and we badly need a win today to set the ball rolling and build up momentum.
An excellent article earlier today James.
The reason we win titles is not a winning mentality though, its all about cash, even with the board putting obstacles in our path we have better quality players who cost more and get payed more. Its the same reason Man City won the league with a last minute Aguerro goal. Not because they played brilliantly against QPR, not a winning mentality, they had zero trophies for years before then but the money had bought players far better than QPR and in the dying seconds it was enough. Thats how we beat the last 3 teams in the dying seconds. Our budget dwarfs all of them. Stuttgart who win very little played us off the park because their budget dwarfs ours. They will also meet their fate most likely at the hands of a richer team despite their “winning mentality” against teams like us.
It’s also what started the protests and the collective. Money yet again. Not spending the £80m on the team coupled with poor management and wholesale unrest has brought us to this stage.
We should still prevail and win the league though. We are the bookies favourites, not because we are being managed brilliantly, not because of a perceived winning mentality but because of money. Our outlay on the squad dwarfs Hibs and we have no excuses for dropping points today. The squad is richer than anybody else’s by far and the title should have been won long ago without relying on added time goals against the worst teams in the league. Thats not a winning mentality it is a far weaker quality team eventually succumbing to a far richer outfit.
The tennis balls and booing our own players made no difference to the result the other night for sure, but we need to support our players in the run in unless the plan is now to take down the team and it is a legitimate option.
Some players will be disturbed by what happened to Schmeichel and it will definitely be on their minds…especially Sinisalo if he plays.
Celtic saunter about the park until the opposition score then they try attacking until they equalise and then CMG has them back strolling about again until the opposition score again and then its rights lads let’s start and luckily it sometimes results in a goal in the dying minutes.
Players need to play in the moment and not have some we nyaff tell them what to do.
I saw Arthur run 30 yards with the ball and then stop when he still had clear yards in front of him. It is now the Celtic Way, pass instead of shooting, pass instead of making up ground, pass because you do not have the talent to hold on to the ball until there is a better option.
Nothing will improve until CMG goes along with the Board.
Captain my a*se.
That team and board are a fucking shambles..trusty is one of the stupidest cunts to ever wear a Celtic shirt and maeda and hatate did fuck all when they came on. For MON to say we were terrific is a fucking joke..is he deluded???
The balls gets passed back the keeper i dont know how many times a match- i have never seen another team do that shite and its boring as fuck, never mind putting g our shite defence in all sorts of danger.
We having nothing up front- no one who can score – if it wasnt for Nygren we might not even be in the top 6. The board are 100% to blame for this shambles -selling all our attacking players and not replacing then with one single decent player. Cvancara looks no better than amino balde from years back and where have ineanacho and the other fella gone to???? Total shambles and all the boards fault. Today’s result rests squarely at the feet of that stupid American prick – now sent off against both embra clubs. What a dick.
I will still keep everything crossed for a miracle but right now as I see it, we are fucked for this season and fucked for the next few seasons if that board dont spend some serious cash on proper players then fuck right off.
You are right we need to bring in better players but who would we trust to identify them.
The board buy on looks,
Kenny looks like a Sutton so we will play him. No? ok Cvancara looks like Kenny who looks like Sutton so he must be a CF.
What the hell lets buy another winger.
Martin O’Neil told the story, when at Celtic the first time, at Leicester Emile Heskey always popped up at the last minute, score and keep him in a job and now Larsson is doing it so it seems he has form in leaving it late.
Other teams when they get the ball move forward as default while Celtic’s is to pass back. The players need some motivational coaching but the main problem is individually they have little skill unless they just don’t get coached how not to hit a ball over the bar etc.
The mentality failure started today…
A fuckin EMBARRASSING March is almost upon us !