Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Good God, I am emotional writing this!
That was incredible. It was Celtic. Let’s face it, there are few things more Celtic than that. The way we stayed calm, stayed composed, stayed in command and never rushed a pass or hurried a move. We waited until they had made their subs before we made our last ones and suckered them. That’s O’Neill at his finest, using every bit of his experience to get us over the line.
Listen, I am going to be coherent here but maybe not by much. I’m writing this from the pub where the party is in full swing and it’s glorious and beautiful and we deserve it and no set of supporters has ever deserved it more. What a season we have been through and what an ending this team and this manager have manufactured.
The next couple of days are going to be pretty incredible for a variety of reasons but this one is ours and there is no narrative that is going to change that. I don’t even feel like addressing the morons and clowns who would suggest we didn’t deserve this or didn’t earn it and we’ll deal with that in due course … but today is ours and fuck the lot of them, if you’ll pardon my very poor effort at French.
How many times were we written off? I love big Chris Sutton and I want to give the guy a hug. Celtic won’t win a game after the split? Come on big lad, admit that you were having us on or admit that you underestimated this team when you never ought to have. Mr. Zero Percent chance ought to close his word processor for the last time and embrace plastic gums and rubber pants; he is not a journalist and never was.
To every hysteric who screamed like a spoiled brat in the last week … this is your day as much as it is ours, only in a different way. Eat it. Choke on it. Bite down hard and swallow back. Celtic are champions again no matter how much that might stick in your throat. And there was something inevitable about it, as Paulina said recently.
Celtic is inevitable. That’s why sitting in Grace’s the other night I was waiting on the goal coming even as the seconds – not the minutes, the seconds – ticked down. That’s why today I was reasonably calm as our season got down to the closing stages … there was always a moment in us, something that changed the story. We had not come this far to be thwarted on the last day. It was like it was written in the stars.
Maeda’s goal was written in the stars as well. It was another moment from a player who has been head and shoulders above his peers for almost the whole time he has been here. Listen, there will be days for talking about analytics and everything else; people are going to say Hearts got here as a result of a superior analytics system and they may be right and time will tell.
But nothing – not one thing in the game – beats a manager who knows a player, knows where he fits in the system and signs him to play in his assigned role. Ange Postecoglou still has his fingerprints on much of this team and what a credit that is to his smarts and his ability to spot a footballer who had the skill set and the mentality – do not ever forget that – to come and play at this incredible club.
And Callum Osmand? There #are things to say about this lad in the days to come, but I thought he was a game-changer when he came on and from the glimpses of him we have seen there is a major, major talent here and we should be thinking about him along those lines. I’m not saying we don’t need to go out and majorly strengthen this team in the forward area, because we do … but he’s special.
He has scored at Hampden in a cup semi final against the Ibrox club and now has one in a league decider against Hearts. It’s not even just the goals, it’s everything. He is cool under pressure, he is smart when it counts and he has the coolness and composure already to do it on the big stage … and he’s only going to get better.
Right now I’m a little too emotional to write emotionally. I’ll need to wait for the comedown before I can even attempt that, but to all of you, to all of us, I say this; thank you for the last twelve months in our collective lives.
Football fans are weird; Nick Hornby says we live in seasons not years and this is absolutely true, and this one has been crazy on so many levels, impossible in so many levels, dreadful and glorious at the same time but all of us have done this together and come through it together and we get our chance tonight to celebrate it together.
Love and respect to all of you! I’ll be back later, but for now … God damn it friends, enjoy the night. We earned it. We deserve it. We are the champions! You know why? Cause the song was right; we keep on fighting to the end!
And for everyone who doubted us, everyone who questioned us, everyone who had a bad word to say about this team and its mentality and its ability to go the distance … really, what else is there to say but that; this is the end.
Don’t know how we done it but we did. Hail hail everyone . Have a good one and stay safe.
If you dont know you never will. Heart , pure heart and self belief with a fanbase who shared the same values, thats how.
Oh ! My days !
Here we go for 10 in a row
Enjoy your night James
Don’t know if anyone else agrees. I think that this title win is the biggest since we stopped the ten. Only my opinion
The man is so special. What he’s done at Celtic is incredible and we have been extremely privileged to have him. I hope he remains at the club in some capacity as his sheer class in dealing with the media, his wealth of experience and his unique ability to get the best out of players, is invaluable to any incoming manager. This title, the sweetest of the sweet, is not only for us, but for our manager, Martin O’Neill, who sooooo deserves it. If he leaves, he leaves as the legend he’s always been and will go with our eternal gratitude and humble thanks for the magic he brought us.
YAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!
and it was my son’s 18th birthday today so double YAAAASSSSSSS!!!
What a day. What a way to win the most unlikely title of my life, other than the one the year my son was born (the day after the great Tommy Burns passed away).
Astonishing what we witnessed today. Osmand looks superb but get Iheanacho and OX retained and get a pre-season in them.
Absolutely BUZZING.
“I haven’t felt that good since Archie Gemmill scored against Holland in 1978!” đŸ˜€
Here we are, a bit more grey haired than we were at the start of this crazy season, but against the odds and the hopes of millions, we’ve done it again and retained our title for a record 56th time. Congrats St Martin of O’Neill who began this season with 7 domestic wins in a row and ended it with the exact same sequence of victories with a squad that refused to say die and played to the final whistle in every game, often doing what they did today and leaving it late before sealing every vital 3 points. Roared on by the greatest fans in the world bar none!
Party on Bhoys & Ghirls, it’s at times been a helluva season on all of us but as the song goes…
Celtic, sent down to us from Heaven
A team that we all adore
You’ll play for us and we’ll sing for you
Onto victory once more!
Just once more indeed and safe to say everyone could do with a double? đŸ™‚
Hail Hail & Low Lie!! (I’m sorry neighbours but I swear by the end of the night you’re going to love The Pogues played loudly as much as I do. lol)
When Osmand’s goal went in MON was nearly involved in a “Me Too” moment when it looked like he was going to hug the little blonde security girl who happened to be the nearest person to him. Pulling out at the last moment when he realized. Hilarious.
The team and support did it and by God, after all we’ve endured together, we deserve it. The good guys won today, we won today. Let all the moaning and groaning from our detractors and enemies be our sustenance over the summer. Let us laugh in the face of all their bullshit conspiracies. Laugh in the face of it and let it sustain our happiness. Everyone who is upset today absolutely deserves it and I hope they wallow in it for years and years. HAIL HAIL.
Just back from the game and feel absolutely drained after that. Not the best game of football, but we got the task completed. Great to see us turning it around, but the fans who invaded the pitch, come on to fuck, grow up. I get there was a sense of emotional release but its a bit daft to engage in that as we’ll be sanctioned.
Seeing reports that Hertz players were assaulted and some clowns are shouting for a replay or other sanctions. What they like?
Well said, re the pitch invasion. 100% agree. Thankfully the vast majority stayed put and did their celebrating in the stands. We are probably going to get hammered for it. It was the only blemish on an otherwise magical day.
“Zero chance of winning the league”
Fuck right off meedja fannies.
Lets not forget the fight starts now to get rid of this corrupt board or its just the same again with an even weaker squad.hail hail
I agree with the sentiments here. Osmand is going to be excellent but the real star is
Iheanacho. Get him fit. He will easily be our best player. Outstanding!
Chris Sutton may have played for Celtic and be Celtic-minded but he doesn’t really know or understand Celtic deep down. He knows nothing about 1979 or 1986 and what also went before that. As for Calum Osmand, well he was guided today by one of the most skillful centre forwards Celtic have had in recent years. What a masterclass in skilled play from Kelechi. It was also he who blocked the Hearts attacked that led to Osmand’s goal. We should work on this guy’s fitness over the summer and take out the year’s extension in his contract. Sheer class.
After Kieran Tierney’s heartfelt testament regarding OUR CAPTAIN’s qualities today, I hope a certain individual who comments on here takes notice and stops his constant sniping about Calum McGregor. I ‘m sure we would all rather accept Kieran’s own glowing praise about Calum than to be subjected to the constant criticism we have had to listen to for the past few months. According to Kieran, this unlikely Title win would never have happened without Calum’s dedicated input, without his urgings and without his constant encouragement that this outcome was possible. We are very honoured and very lucky to have such a leader in our midst.
Well done to Calum McGregor and to the players who listened to him.
Hear hear! Second that from the rafters.
As for the kelechi plaudits am with you all but i think he is just a wee bit mental, like finger in a power socket wired to the gills mental and loves the club to bits. My god though! What a talent on the ball the hold up, the techniques ,he is something special really special . Can you imagine 2 up front, him and young calum.
Love your comments about analytics James. Reminds me of Rocky IV where the analytically scientifically built Dolph couldn’t overcome Rocky who had stuff Lundgren didn’t ie experience and most of all heart and a refusal to lie down and die or ever accept defeat. Analytics will never be able to measure those factors. He,like Celtic,defied all the doubters and critics so I hope you have a field day with the myriad of so called experts who wrote us off just because we are Celtic and who used every angle to tell us why it would be better for the title to go to anyone but Celtic. I hope you have one particular target in mind. I also hope our victory does not in any way validate our current stance on transfers fan engagement etc but that is for another day. Championeeeeesss championeeesss oh wey oh wee oh wee……
The only words are, What a fuckin team
Now on to those stupid stupid stupid little cunts , you know, the stupid little cunts that invaded the park .. goading the hearts players , shankland having a go back , quite fuckin right , I would have pasted the stupid little cunts.. we, as a club will be fined heavily for that .. time to get the fences back up ,at every ground , to protect guys just doing their job , plaudits to the young celtic man pushing fans away from hearts players but he should not have been the pitch either, we will get destroyed by everyone in the media and SFA .
On a day like saturday, we came back from the dead , we were written off ,
Mon the hoops, hail hail and COYBIG
Let’s do the double .
I’m away up the golf wearing my green and white , my colours, gonna get it right fuckin up them .. I hope all the hun golfers are up there, probably lying in their pish n tears but if they are up their , I won’t let them forget ,
We are the most successful team in Scotland and they were never the people they thought they were
Everyone of those Neds and muppets who went onto the pitch should be banned for life – zero tolerance. And if they have already paid for a season ticket for next season I wouldn’t give them a refund.
I couldn’t watch, just drove to Glasgow, nice drive nice scenic nature, dumped the motor at ma mate’s holiday home, switched on the mobi and Wow – OMG !
Went to the street party for a bit, got a bus home, hangover from hell drinking and loved watching that on Sportscene and now I have to suffer a long journey with a hangover to pick up the bloody motor…
The things ya do for Celtic but my goodness yesterday was worth it !
Martin will be returning in at least one capacity – his statue!