The Chris Sutton response to last night’s Celtic win is a sign of where the feelings of the support currently sit despite winning form.
After a 4-0 Celtic victory in the Scottish Premiership, you may have expected more positivity from Bhoys fans and pundits than what we got.
The goals were excellent. There were no great complaints with the performance itself. Our players and our manager were all happy with the evening’s work.
Yet, apathy reigns less than 24 hours onwards for many.
Chris Sutton led the charge on that front shortly after full-time, taking to Twitter to sum up his feelings on the match.
He said: “Celtic played well tonight but it’s hard to get excited even with a 4-0 win. Too little too late.”
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Not exactly the glowing assessment that manager Neil Lennon gave after the match. The Celtic boss called his players ‘magnificent’ and talked up the benefits of the third win on the trot.
Sutton, love him or hate him as a pundit, at least usually takes the opportunity to talk Celtic and his former teammate up in the media, unless the evidence is too great otherwise.
So where is the disconnect?
To me, it strikes at the heart of the growing indifference supporters have with this season. The reality is it was over by January and the longer Celtic fail to recognise that, the more a divide grows between fans and club.
Yes, the team can only beat what is in front of them and we can all appreciate a pretty finish or four. Yes, there is no point in constantly relitigating the sins of the past six months.
Yet, this side are stuck in limbo and there’s no desire from the manager to change that.
There’s no blooding in youngsters. There’s no fresh look to the starting eleven or formation. We don’t even have Ismaila Soro to hang our hat on anymore.
Nobody wants to go over old ground. By the same token, nobody at Celtic appears interested in building for the future.
So why should we get excited about a half-decent performance in a meaningless match against St Mirren? Save for David Turnbull and a couple of others, what do we have to look forward to with this Celtic team?
Sutton is right, it’s all too little, too late. That may be an uncomfortable truth for some, but it’s the truth all the same.