The first thing Celtic boss Neil Lennon should’ve done when he woke up this morning is get on the blower to Steven Gerrard and thank him.
Rangers have done the Hoops a massive favour with their 3-2 loss to St Mirren last night. Not just because they’ve lost a game and the momentum of the season could now shift in Celtic’s favour. Although that helps too.
No, Gerrard’s Rangers have put a superbly beautiful spotlight on Celtic’s quadruple-treble achievement. So many of us, myself included, have perhaps lost sight of just how big this monumental feat actually is.
It couldn’t be more perfectly timed either with Celtic due to complete the achievement should they beat Hearts on Sunday in the Scottish Cup final.
The reason it puts such a spotlight on things? Well let’s not kid ourselves, our rivals had started the season on fire. We won’t sing about their start to the season, we know what kind of form they’ve been in this term. Barry Ferguson was getting a touch excited about it mind (Daily Record).
But the fact that their form has been so good yet they couldn’t come close to completing the first part of the treble tells a story. Just one game. That’s all it takes. One bad night in Paisley and your treble dream is over.
Celtic achievements will forever be unrivalled
The fact we’re on the cusp of stringing together four of them is absolutely sensational. Even that description doesn’t do the achievement justice.
Brendan Rodgers and Neil Lennon deserve immense credit for these treble successes. Probably not as much as they get.
Sure, that doesn’t give the Celtic manager unlimited credit in the bank. They have to continually produce and our situation this season still isn’t acceptable. Had Lennon been sacked in recent weeks nobody could’ve batted an eyelid. Defeat to Hearts and you still couldn’t.
However, Rangers have done him a massive favour. They’ve helped bring to the fore just how impressive one treble is, nevermind four of them. Sunday’s game with Hearts was looking a touch lifeless. Our rivals have now injected plenty of energy into the occasion thanks to their defeat last night. Because with their momentum at a halt, it gives us a chance to push forward our own.
Even in Celtic’s poorer moments over the last four years, we’ve still churned out cup success after cup success. That hasn’t led to an entitled fanbase, but it’s led to support who is used to this. Whose standards have raised so much since the Ronny Deila days.
That makes it easy to forget just how difficult it is to win one of these trebles. There’s a reason they were so fabled before Rodgers’ arrival.
So thank you Mr Gerrard – you’ve got the Celtic support going again. Now it’s time for our team to use that momentum in the right fashion.
In other news, Rangers suffered another blow last night to go along with their result, and it could affect the Celtic match in two weeks.
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