IT’S A MORE than reasonable assumption to believe Celtic will be celebrating their fourth successive Premiership title some time around April/May.
Only a cataclysmic nosedive into an abyss of ceaseless misery can prevent the thirteenth championship in 14 years and the 55th untainted crown in the club’s glorious history being unveiled in the east end of Glasgow.
Any points advantage that reaches double figures by this stage of the crusade – with 15 games to play – should just about ensure vast quantities of metallic polish will be required by the cleaning ladies in the Parkhead trophy room to continue to spruce up the impending silverware.
In that case, dear reader, everything is fine and dandy and we can all look out the bunting at the conclusion of a season which could also include the already-claimed League Cup and the Scottish Cup which has been the club’s property for the past two years?
Alas, the beautiful game doesn’t work like that, does it?
X-CERTIFICATE VIEWING..Dundee’s Olu Adewumi fires in his side’s first goal with four Celts getting a close-up look at his striking prowess.
Before we begin ordering cases of champagne, or crates of beer, if you prefer, let’s take a look at some worrying aspects that have come to the fore in recent times at Brendan Rodgers’ champions.
Perplexingly, a defence that had conceded a mere seven goals in their opening 18 domestic fixtures have just shed three for the third time inside a month in the bizarre deadlock in Dundee last night.
Prior to the most recent wobble on Tayside, Kasper Schmeichel had been invited to retrieve the ball from the back of his net six times – the 3-3 draw in the Premier Sports League Cup Final on December 15 and the 3-0 debacle in Govan two days into 2025 – with his defence twice posted awol against Philippe Clement’s stumbling outfit.
On top of that, Celtic dropped only two points – a 2-2 draw with Aberdeen – in 15 Premiership outings from August 4 to December 22.
Inside a month, they have carelessly discarded seven points – three at Ibrox and two each at Tannadice and Dens Park.
You do not require a deerstalker, a pipe and a sidekick by the name of Dr Watson to detect all is far from being hunky dory in the east end of the city.
SILVERWARE CELTS…Hampden penalty-kick shoot-out heroes Daizen Maeda and Kasper Schmeichel celebrate the League Cup success.
The Hampden performance in the League Cup Final was an early eye-opener. Nicolas Kuhn swept the Hoops into a 3-2 lead in the 87th minute.
Three minutes plus stoppage-time to play and Rodgers’ men will hold what they’ve got to see out the game? That’s what any right-minded person would have been led to believe, but this is the new benevolent Celtic we are talking about.
Inside two minutes, Rangers had equalised. Greg Taylor was away being an inverted full-back elsewhere when the ball dropped at the feet of Vaclav Cerny on the right wing.
It was left to Daizen Maeda to carry out the defensive duties. Without any hindrance, the Czech was allowed to drag the ball onto his favoured left foot and pitch a cross into the penalty area.
Schmeichel, for reasons only known to the giant Danish keeper, elected to stay on his line, Cameron Carter-Vickers got under the ball and Anthony Ralston hit the snooze button at the far post to allow Brazilian striker Danilo the time and space to bury a header from practically under the crossbar.
It was around this time I half expected Benny Hill to enter proceedings in a green and white shirt just to continue the comedic routines.
GRIM AND BEAR IT…Brendan Rodgers applauds the Celtic fans at Dens Park.
All sins were forgiven, though, when Schmeichel plunged to his left to thwart Ridvan Yilmaz and Maeda rolled one into the corner in the penalty-kick shoot-out, the trophy was passed onto Callum McGregor and Celtic had won their 119th trophy which made them the most successful club on the planet.
And, yet, a nagging doubt remained. Why had the team depended on spot-kicks to lift the trophy against a team they rolled over three months earlier at Parkhead?
The sluggish scoreless stalemate at Tannadice followed a week later to make sure the frowns were still in place and, just eleven days later, alarm bells were ringing with a non-performance at Ibrox where there was absolutely no argument the better team had won.
I used the word ‘passive’ when I described the match in CQN. I could have chosen more extreme expressions, but I thought Brendan’s Bhoys deserved a break considering what they had already produced in an arduous campaign which required inspiring resilience to get off the floor after a seven-goal drubbing in Dortmund in only the tenth game.
But there was no getting away from the fact Callum and Co had been dismissively brushed aside. They were too easily dominated and overcome by a team that had gone into the contest on the back of a defeat against St Mirren and a draw at Motherwell.
We are all allowed an off-day, but it was a tad distressing that not a solitary performer who represented Celtic that afternoon rated a passmark.
Clement’s players must have blown a gasket in their almighty efforts to ensure a derby triumph and had to accept dropping four points in back-to-back draws with Hibs and Dundee in their next two encounters.
I wouldn’t say we witnessed distress flares in the inky-blue skies above Tayside last night, but it’s clear there is a malfunction in this Celtic team.
They have skill in abundance in the middle of the park in the shape of skipper McGregor, Engels, Hatate, Bernardo and McCowan. All quality performers and you can throw a fully-fit James Forrest into the mix, too, if you so desire.
Let me know how many 50/50 challenges you saw Bernardo win against a direct opponent last night. Or Hatate. Or McGregor, for that matter.
Rodgers is going to sacrifice some of his principles and go and sign a ball winner, a player who will add steel to the team’s engine room.
DANGER AVERTED…Davie Hay clears from lunging Rangers striker Colin Stein.
Quite by coincidence, I was talking to Davie Hay on the afternoon before the game. The Celtic great had been at Ibrox to witness the collapse of the team he served so well as a player, manager and even chief scout.
Davie is not one of those bombastic guys who likes to tell present-day managers what they should or shouldn’t do. My old mate is a man of considerable class and he leaves the loudmouth assessments to others who do not possess a scintilla of his knowledge.
However, Davie did mention he would like to see a player in the middle of the park who could get in about it when he saw a team-mate in the need of a helping hand.
I couldn’t help thinking about the conversation as Dundee turned the game on its head on this most recent occasion for concern.
Davie, at the peak of his considerable powers in the seventies, would have answered every SOS to make sure the team did not come off the tracks.
What was it the late and great Tommy Docherty labelled the versatile Celt?
How Brendan Rodgers could do with The Quiet Assassin in today’s line-up.
ALEX GORDON