It’s well known now that Celtic are getting into the business end of the season.
No more talk about progress. No more talk about rebuilds. Now it’s simply all about getting over the line in the title-race and potentially winning the Scottish Cup.
When the pressure was previously on Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic to finish a trophy win, they managed it by securing the League Cup. That sparked talk of what could be on offer to the Hoops this season. Talk that has bolstered further since overtaking Rangers in the Premiership and navigating a couple of Scottish Cup ties.
And now, it appears as though Celtic have set a unified message whenever anyone is being asked about a potentially historic treble success. Joe Hart was the first to play it down at a press conference on Thursday. He stated then that whilst Celtic always want to win every competition they’re in, it remains a case of only focusing on the next game [Celtic YouTube].
Manager Ange Postecoglou was next up to state that he was only focusing on whatever challenge was in front of him. He stated he simply wasn’t interested in talking about trebles [Daily Record].
Even Nir Bitton, who was part of our quadruple treble success between 2016 and 2020, hit the same note. How does he view the challenge then? “Step-by-step” was his response [Glasgow Times].
Celtic not getting ahead of their station in comments to the media
This is a far cry from Josip Juranovic letting slip our true goals earlier in the season. Back in January, the Croatian right-back stated that when he arrived, he was informed by the club that they wanted to win everything this season [The Scotsman].
That appears to be the true goal, and why wouldn’t it be at a club the size of ours? If we manage to overcome Dundee United tonight, we’ll be into the last 4 of the Scottish Cup. Step-by-step of course, but nobody can deny it it’s a realistic goal.
Nothing is going to be handed to us of course. That’s exactly why it’s important to be so tunnel-visioned here. Celtic, for example, have a huge clash against Ross County at Parkhead on Saturday. They won’t have given that one bit of attention given the United tie that awaits us tonight.
Things are getting serious and the players and management know it. They understand this is a realistic possibility, and plenty of rival supporters will be fearing us taking the lot. So the best thing to do is to of course play it down and not come across as arrogant or dismissive.
The last thing we need to do is rile everyone up and come across as bigger than our station. There are so many questions to be answered by this squad between now and the summer. We could, for example, still have 3 big Glasgow derbies in our hands if we progress tonight. A lot of extremely difficult challenges lie ahead for us.
The goal is there and it’s now finally within sight. A fabled treble could very well be on its way to Celtic Park this season. But it’s not something that anyone at Celtic is talking about. At least not openly.
In other news, Ross County start up their pre-Celtic fighting talk; planning a “big statement” at Parkhead
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