Imperious champions like Celtic are commercially and competitively beneficial

There are five games between Celtic and a third successive Scottish Cup win, a run of success achieved only by Rangers (in the 60s) and Aberdeen (in the 80s).  Brendan Rodgers’ priority for the remainder of the season will be to win the league title, but with the embarrassment of trebles and seven-in-a-row leagues, matching the successive wins record in the Scottish Cup is a significant and worthy target.

Retaining the Cup also denies pretenders the opportunity to put a stake in the ground, a bit like we did against the other Airdrieonians (who perished when they were unable to pay David Murray’s bill) in the 1995 Final.

There’s a notion that Celtic playing Monopoly with Scottish football is a bad thing from a competitive or commercial sense, but I suspect the opposite is true.  On any given season the Cup would be sacrificed for the league, but everyone else wants to win a trophy, any trophy – this trophy.  Every competition is a chance to deny historically imperious champions.  So let’s just win it.