The challenge of Hearts to Celtic’s Scottish Premiership crown is certainly hitting the headlines and it’s prompted Alan Brazil to deliver his honest verdict.
Brazil is a self-confessed Celtic supporter and has followed the club all his life. And looking at the title race after the Bhoys’ first defeat of the season, the talkSPORT man was asked about the challenge from Hearts.
Derek McInnes’ side sit five points clear of Celtic as Brendan Rodgers takes his side to Tynecastle to face Hearts this coming weekend.
And looking at how things stand at Celtic and Rangers, Brazil shares what he thinks if Hearts can pull off what looks like the impossible and win the league this season.
Hearts beating Celtic to the title would ‘give everyone a lot of hope’
With 30 games still to go in the season, the hype surrounding Hearts and Celtic does appear to be a bit premature.
But with Celtic not firing on all cylinders, Brazil thinks that a title race could well be on.
Brazil told talkSPORT, “There’s something not right at Celtic. We know Rangers have got problems, they’ve got the new guy coming in, so it will be interesting to see what he can do.
“He’s bringing his brother in to help coach.”
Agbonlahor: “I watched the game, Celtic weren’t great getting caught on the counter attack. Terrible.”
“Take your Celtic hat off, would it be good for Scottish football if Hearts do win the league?”
Brazil: “It’s difficult because Celtic’s my team, but it would make a massive change, and it would give everyone a lot of hope, if that was the case.
“Rangers, we know it’s going to take a while to sort. Celtic will sort it. They’ll sort it quickly, because the supporters won’t have it. They won’t have it.
“I would just like to know where Brendan sits at this moment in time. Is he happy? Is there something bothering him? Because clearly the team are not playing with that togetherness, and that passion at the moment.
“Something is missing but fair dues to Hearts.”
What next for Celtic?
Well, before facing Hearts, Celtic need to take care of Europa League business against Sturm Graz on Thursday night.
Brendan Rodgers is under pressure simply down to Celtic’s inability to create and score goals and so far this season it has led to embarrassing defeats to Kairat Almaty, SC Braga and Dundee.
If the Celtic boss was to oversee back-to-back Europa League home defeats with another lacklustre performance, the pressure will crank up ahead of the visit to Hearts.
A win is crucial not only for team morale on Thursday night but also for Celtic fan confidence that this current slump can be dealt with by Rodgers.
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