The hardest thing for Celtic fans to admit is that yesterday was coming.

For many months now, this site and others have been writing about certain key characteristics of this Celtic side. The never-say-die attitude. Its resilience. Their determination. The mentality to grind out results when it really matters.

Those words have been everywhere.

They have become almost the way we describe this team.

And yet, there is something else that has been missing from those conversations. Something nobody has really been saying out loud. No one has been saying that Celtic will win the title because we are playing brilliant football.

No one has been saying that Celtic are the best team in the country in terms of performance, in terms of quality, in terms of how we actually play the game, and I think, on some level, we all knew why. Because deep down, we all felt that this moment was coming.

Maybe not exactly when. Maybe not exactly how. But the feeling was there, quietly sitting in the background, even during the wins, even during the runs where we kept finding a way.

It never quite felt convincing.

There were games where we got over the line and you felt relief more than joy. Games where the result mattered more than the performance, and you told yourself that was enough. That this is what champions do. Sometimes it is. Sometimes that mentality is exactly what wins you titles. But it cannot be the only thing you rely on.

Because over time, if the football itself does not match the results, something has to give.

And now it feels like it has.

I think that is why this current moment feels different. It is not just about a bad result or a difficult run. It feels like something that has been building for a while has finally caught up with us.

Those narrow wins. All those games where we were not quite right but found a way anyway. Those many performances where we controlled the ball but never truly controlled the game.

They were warning signs. We just did not always treat them that way.

It is easy to get carried along when you are winning. Easy to believe that the mentality will always be enough, that the character of the team will carry you through whatever problems appear. But football does not work like that for long.

Eventually, you need more. You need clarity and quality. You need a way of playing that consistently creates chances and puts teams under pressure. And when that is not there, when the football becomes slow or predictable or uncertain, the margins become smaller. The results become harder to find. The resilience you rely on starts to feel like it is being asked to do too much.

That is where our Celtic Lions are now. This team still has character. It still has players who care, who fight, who refuse to give in. That has not disappeared. But the football around them has not supported that in the way it needs to.

And that is why the conversation has started to change. Because it is no longer enough to say we are resilient. It is no longer enough to talk about mentality and determination if the performances themselves are not improving.

Those qualities are important. They always will be.

But they are meant to be the foundation, not the whole structure. You build on top of them. You do not rely on them to carry everything.

For too long now, it feels like that is exactly what we have been doing.

I do not think Celtic supporters have been blind to this. I think most people have seen it, even if they have not always wanted to say it out loud. Because as long as the results were coming, there was always that hope that things would click, that the performances would catch up, that the team would find another level.

That has not happened, and now we are left facing the reality of what it might mean. A season of failure. This is not about turning on the team. It is not about dismissing what they have done or the effort they have shown.

It is about recognising that effort alone is not enough.

Not at this stage. Not with what is at stake. The truth is that we have been winning games without ever really convincing anyone that we are the best team in the country and when you do that for long enough, eventually the results stop covering the cracks.

That is what this feels like. Not a sudden collapse, but the natural outcome of something that has been building for months, and maybe the hardest part is admitting that we all saw it coming, even if we did not want to say it.

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