Former Rangers and St Mirren striker Steven Thompson has admitted that he wouldn’t bet against Neil Lennon delivering a quadruple treble for Celtic this season.
The Hoops swept to their 10th consecutive domestic victory with a routine 3-1 win against Kilmarnock yesterday. The result put Lennon’s side 12 points clear at the top of the Premiership with only 10 games left to play. Granted, Rangers have a game in-hand to potentially narrow it down to nine.
Celtic already have the Betfred Cup in the trophy cabinet – their 10th domestic trophy in-a-row after Brendan Rodgers and Lennon helped secure a sensational treble-treble.
And speaking on Sportscene on BBC Scotland last night (23/02, 19:45), Thompson reserved some praise for Lennon and the job he’s done.
“He’s had to prove himself (Lennon), but he’s had a sensational season – one trophy already in the bag. I think what’s helped is after that defeat on 29th December, Celtic have found a whole new level – another gear.
“In 2020 their form has been sensational. I think the tweak of formation as well has been another big thing because they were looking a bit jaded with the old formation going into the start of the new year. It’s really taken off and worked.
“He deserves huge credit. Now looking at it – you wouldn’t bet against them winning a quadruple treble. It’s almost unthinkable to be able to manage that.”
Time to stop betting against Celtic achieving the impossible
At the start of every season, it’s easy to come out and say that we won’t win the treble again. It’s meant to be such a rare and historical achievement.
However, over the last three years, Celtic have made it look like it’s nothing more than our minimum requirement. The ease with which the Hoops have romped to cup success is incredible, and Thompson’s comments prove that.
No long is Thompson willing to bet against Celtic achieving the impossible. They’ve done it time and time again in this era of total dominance.
What’s even more incredible is that it’s come whilst we’ve been performing in Europe too. In all three of our treble-winning seasons, Rodgers managed to take Celtic into either the Champions League group stages or the Europa League last-32 (x2). Lennon is now doing the same, and looks good value to make the last-16 of Europe’s second-best club competition too – something Rodgers never managed.
Yet the old argument of looking weary after European competition doesn’t seem to apply to this Celtic side. We’ve played 12 games on weekends after Euro matches this season. Only one of them, a 2-0 loss at Livingston, has seen us slip up in any.
So it’s clear this Celtic side is on a serious charge once again this season. Thompson isn’t betting that they’ll be stopped either – but who would?
Is a quadruple treble this season a priority? How important is the Scottish Cup in the bigger picture? Where would a quadruple treble rank in the clubs’ illustrious history of achievements? Give us your verdict in our discussion forum below.
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