ALAN THOMPSON insists it will be Celtic’s best achievement in a DECADE if his old boss Neil Lennon can turn this season around and win the club’s tenth successive title.
The former Hoops assistant gaffer believes no-one should write off the team, despite a stumbling start to a monumental campaign where history beckons.
Scotland’s title kings have shed nine points from 13 Premiership games and are 11 points adrift of Steven Gerrard’s Ibrox outfit with two games in hand.
They could be afforded the potential of widening that gap on the weekend of Celtic’s delayed Scottish Cup Final against Hearts on December 20 when the Parkhead side can complete the phenomenal quadruple treble.
Thommo, speaking to the Scottish Sun, admitted: “I would say that, if Rangers go 14 points clear and Celtic come back to overtake them, then it would unquestionably be the greatest achievement of the 10-in-a-row era.
“It’s all very well having three games in hand, but you have to fit them into what is already a short and crowded season.
“You could end up playing three or four times a week and you still need to win all of them, which is a huge ask considering the stress everyone will be under.
“This is a time for everyone at the club to pull together — the management, the players and the supporters.
“The fans need to get behind them, even if they can’t get into the ground they can avoid going overboard on social media after an average performance because every team has one of them. You have to remember that there is an enormous amount of pressure on everyone at the club to get this 10 done and it’s going to be tough.
“However, it’s absolutely doable with the players they have at Lennoxtown.
“All teams have at least one sticky spell during a season and it could be Celtic have just had theirs.”
Thommo has seen his old club decimated by coronavirus-related problems with midfielder David Turnbull now being added to the list which includes Odsonne Edouard, Ryan Christie, Nir Bitton and Hatem Abd Elhamed.
He added: “Rangers haven’t had the same problems with the virus, but it’s looking as though everyone is likely to be affected at some point.
“They’ve also still to have their own dip in form and there will come a point, over a three-to-four-week period, where they will drop points when they’re not expected to. So, there’s a lot still to be played for.
“I’ve watched a few of Celtic’s games and you could see that this was a team and — particularly, a defence — that hasn’t been playing with each other week in, week out.
“When you have continuity of selection, you click quickly going into games. But when you don’t have that it can often take you until the second half before you get going.”
