A Scottish Cup win would not paper over the cracks of Celtic’s abysmal season.

lot of people are already talking as if a Scottish Cup win, if it’s our only trophy, will send the Celtic manager off in triumph. It won’t. Deep down, I think everyone knows that, including Martin himself, who would not want to have seen a chance to win the title slip away. If anything, it should stand as an indictment of the people running this club.

Winning a domestic cup should crown a great season at Celtic. It should feel like confirmation that everything is working. Right now, it wouldn’t. It will feel uncomfortable. It feel incomplete unless it seals a double. That’s because this team no longer carries the fear, the authority or the presence that once defined it.

There was a time when opponents stepped onto the pitch already bracing themselves. Celtic didn’t just win games, they imposed themselves. That edge has gone. Teams now see Celtic as an opportunity, not a threat. That alone tells you something is badly wrong.

Yes, trophies still matter. Of course they do. But at this club, they used to be part of something bigger. Titles, cups, trebles, relentless dominance. That was the standard. Those have slipped. That shift in expectation should concern every single supporter.

Because this is where the phrase “papering over the cracks” comes in, and it fits far too well. A trophy risks becoming a shield. Something that allows those in charge to point and say, “Look, success,” while everything underneath continues to erode.

We’ve seen this pattern before. A good result arrives, questions get pushed aside, and criticism is dismissed as negativity. But results don’t erase the underlying issues. They just delay the moment when those issues can no longer be ignored.

Look at the season as a whole. The inconsistency. The lack of direction. The sense that everything is being managed rather than driven forward. There is no clear identity, no visible long-term plan, just a feeling of doing enough to get by.

So, when I look at the possibility of winning the cup, I won’t just see success if that’s all it is. I might not see winning the double as a success if it allows people to pretend things are alright at this club. I would see something being used. Something convenient.

What I see is a club that still cannot fix its problems and directors who would happily accept such an outcome if it allowed them a little breathing space.

That’s not the Celtic I recognise.

I keep looking for the fire that used to define us. The leadership at the top. The players who drag others forward when things get difficult. Too often now, I see hesitation instead of authority. I see a team reacting rather than dictating. And that’s why one trophy wouldn’t settle this for me or for most other fans.

What makes this harder is the internal conflict it creates. Part of me wants to celebrate without hesitation. A trophy is a trophy. That’s what we’ve always said. But another part of me won’t let it go. It keeps asking the same question: is this enough? Not to consider this season a success. Not even close.

Because I’ve seen how standards slip. Not suddenly, not dramatically, but slowly. You accept one compromise, then another, and before you know it, what once felt unacceptable becomes normal. That’s the real danger here.

If this becomes enough, then what are we aiming for? What does that say about where we are, and where we’re trying to go?

And when I look beyond the domestic game, that discomfort only grows. Because we can win trophies here, but what happens in Europe? That’s where the truth is exposed. That’s where weaknesses are punished.

Would the cup change anything there? Would it make us stronger, more competitive, better prepared? I don’t think it does.

And that’s why this wouldn’t feel like progress. It would feel like a pause. A moment that risks disguising the need for real change.

Because what we need is not another short-term success. We need direction and a clear identity on the pitch. We need recruitment that makes sense, that builds something coherent, not something patched together. On top of that we need real leadership.

On the pitch, in the dugout, and in the boardroom.

Without that, we’re drifting. So yes, I would feel proud if we won the Scottish Cup. I always will when Celtic lifts a trophy. That will never change.

But I would also feel uneasy. Because I can’t ignore the bigger picture. I can’t pretend this fixes what I’ve watched all season. I would want to celebrate believing in a brighter future, that it would be the start of an era … not the end of one.

Choose The CelticBlog as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.