Hearts and sections of the Scottish football media are getting badly carried away.
Less than 24 hours before they dropped points against Motherwell, the conversation somehow shifted towards podiums, trophy presentations and title party plans at Tynecastle.
For Celtic, this should be pure motivation because nothing about this title race is finished yet.
Will we hunt Hearts down and win the title?
Hearts are behaving like Celtic’s trophy is already theirs
The SPFL preparing title presentation plans for Tynecastle has created an unbelievable amount of noise for a team that has not actually won anything yet.
The SPFL were prepared to present Hearts with the Scottish Premiership trophy on Wednesday should they have beaten Motherwell and Celtic lost to Rangers this weekend. That looks extremely foolish now and Celtic could make the governing body and the Tynecastle club pay for that.
Yes, Hearts were in a strong position. Nobody disputes that. But the timing of all this celebration talk is genuinely bizarre when they had yet to visit Motherwell and still have games against Falkirk and Celtic to play.
The league table still leaves Celtic with a game in hand and a Parkhead clash against Hearts still to come.
That is hardly the moment to start discussing where the trophy will sit and how the party will look.
Some Hearts supporters already seem desperate to picture title-winning scenes at Tynecastle before the hard part is actually complete.
Scottish football has seen this movie before. Hearts above all people should know how dangerous premature celebrations can become because of the club’s infamous 1985-86 collapse.
And after dropping points against Motherwell, Hearts and the SPFL look like they could have a serious amount of egg on their faces this week.
Celtic have now been handed the perfect response
If there was any danger of Celtic lacking motivation heading into the final week, Hearts and the surrounding hype may have solved that problem for them.
Martin O’Neill’s side are still alive in this race and their recent winning run means belief will still be there inside the dressing room.
Hearts deserve credit for putting themselves in contention to become the first non-Glasgow champions since Aberdeen.
But acting like the title procession has already started is another thing entirely. The smartest thing Hearts could have done this week was stay quiet and keep focus purely on football.
Instead, the conversation has drifted towards celebrations before the trophy has actually been won.
Celtic should absolutely use that.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
