Ange Postecoglou has made an effort to push back on the narrative that Celtic already have the Scottish Premiership title in the bag after establishing an early seven-point lead at the top of the table.
The Bhoys have only dropped points in one match this season – a shock defeat away to St Mirren – and have comfortably opened up a gap on second-placed Rangers.
However, Postecoglou is adamant that no one can get complacent about the task at hand, pointing out that there is still two-thirds of the season to go.
For the Celtic manager, it’s just as absurd to crown the Bhoys champions already this season as it was to write off his team in the early stages of last year’s campaign.
As quoted by The Scottish Daily Mail [09/11 print edition, page 67], he said ahead of tonight’s match against Motherwell: “I was pretty consistent last year in saying that looking at a table and trying to predict the outcome at this stage is just ludicrous.
“Yeah, we’re seven points ahead but we were four points behind a year ago and won the league by four points. So nothing changes. It’s not because I’m dismissive of it. We are in a strong position but we need to push on.
“Because, even though there’s been a lot of games, the reality of it is that we are only a third of the way through the season. The majority of it is still to come. We’ve got to make sure we keep going. We’ve had a strong start but the key to us is improving through the season and making an even stronger finish and the rest will take care of itself.”
Postecoglou obviously isn’t eager to burst the bubble of good feeling at Celtic right now but I think he is spot on with his assessment here. Nobody can get carried away.
If we know anything about Scottish football it is that there are still many twists and turns ahead. Nothing can be taken for granted, as excited as fans are right now.
The last thing anyone needs at this stage is to be given a champions-elect tag. Postecoglou won’t accept that internally and, apparently, wants that shut down in public discussion too.
In other news, More VAR handball chaos proves Ange Postecoglou’s point and suggests new reality for Celtic.
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