Celtic’s rivals seem to know the stakes here. Why don’t we?

Last night, Hearts beat Dundee United away with a kind of measured ease that made even me sit up and take notice. I didn’t think the home side were particularly good. I’m not their number one fan in terms of how they play, and Jim Goodwin increasingly feels like a running joke, bouncing from club to club without ever doing anything substantial.

But Hearts have spent this transfer window showing they mean business.

No sooner had they lost Shankland to injury than they replaced him.

They lost Devlin and went out and replaced him.

Hearts know exactly what this season is. They know they’ll be in Europe next year and that they might not get another shot like this for a long time. This is their moment. After this, they’re back to being just another team having a forgettable season. So, they’re pushing now.

Just knowing you’ve got one chance can carry a team a long way. Knowing it’s now or never gives you that extra ounce of energy, that willingness to play through fatigue and pain. Teams have won leagues on less.

Add to that something not enough people are talking about. Hearts have been out in front in this race for a long time. The size of the lead has changed, but the fact of it has not. Momentum matters. When they came to Celtic Park knowing we could go top, they got the result. That belief can take a team further than talent alone.

Across the city, the Ibrox club also believes it has momentum.

It thinks the wind is at its back and that a fair wind might carry it to the title. They’ve taken this window seriously too and spent money. They’ve changed their team. I’m not as enamoured with what they’ve done as some in the media, who are practically wetting themselves at the thought of their favourites getting over the line, but nobody can say their board hasn’t backed the manager.

They understand this is a one-shot deal as well.

If they win this title, there’s a real chance of straight entry into the Champions League groups. I’ve looked at the likely teams in that champions path and, frankly, I wouldn’t be terrified of any of them if I were in their shoes. Even if they have to qualify, their board will at least try to prepare them properly.

After this season, that chance goes. Their coefficient drops. Scotland’s coefficient drops. Just like Hearts, it’s do it now or accept that you might not get this chance again for a long time. They get that.

Now look at it from Celtic’s perspective.

Even without the Champions League upside, the downside of losing this title is enormous. Hearts will strengthen in the summer. Other clubs will strengthen. That’s a given. If the Ibrox club wins the title, it will spend to keep it. That’s a stonewall certainty.

And that’s before we even get to our own situation.

As I said last week, our real work doesn’t even begin until the final game of this season is played. You cannot approach a new manager without knowing where you finish. You cannot sell him a project without clarity on the damage already done.

The next Celtic manager will face a monumental rebuild. That job cannot begin until the club appoints him. And right now, this club is a shambles on and off the pitch.

Our reputation in Europe has taken a battering because we did it to ourselves. We knifed a manager who won four trophies out of six, eleven in total. Succeed here and you risk getting stabbed in the back. Fail, and the club can sack you after eight games.

None of that makes Celtic an attractive destination.

I know some fans don’t want to hear this, but we have inflicted serious reputational damage on ourselves. We have done long-term structural damage. Fixing it will require a fundamental change in how this club operates.

The people who made this mess cannot clean it up. Their continued presence makes the task harder. They are the reason trust has eroded. And yet they still expect to appoint the next manager and oversee his rebuild, despite already proving they cannot do either competently.

Meanwhile, both of our title rivals have acted like professionals in this window. They understand the moment. They understand the stakes.

Those clubs believe the prize is worth the risk.

Hearts are taking measured risks. The Ibrox club is going further out on the limb, but nobody there will care if it works, and history suggests they don’t care much when it doesn’t. They just spend again.

At Celtic Park, though, there is no sign that anyone understands what this moment is.

There is no urgency. No sense of crisis. No evidence that the risks of doing nothing have even been considered. This transfer window has unfolded as if the stakes did not exist at all.

That is the unbelievable part.

Not that this board has let down another manager. That’s depressingly easy to believe. It’s that there is no sign they grasp what losing this title would mean.

Lose it, and next season becomes harder immediately.

You start from behind. When you rebuild you do it under pressure.

You do it with the same people who already failed to act when action was required.

We talk about limited funds as if it’s meaningful, even after watching this window and the summer before it. God help us when funds really are limited.

This club is going to have to take risks. It is going to have to invest. It is going to have to spend. That is the only route through this.

So much hinges on the outcome of this campaign that it makes me dizzy to think about it. What makes me genuinely sick is the growing sense that the people running Celtic do not understand that, or worse, do not care.

And if they don’t care, why should anyone else?

Why should a manager or players put themselves through Hell?

Why would any player of real quality choose to stay here beyond the immediate term?

What I see is an executive that does not understand that today’s crisis is laying the foundations for tomorrow’s.

Tynecastle gets it. Ibrox gets it.

Celtic, staggeringly, does not.