champions in good shape to defend the title... how about doing it ‘the celtic way’?

 

It’s unlikely that there will eve be another season in Celtic’s history like 2007-08. For raw emotion and wild jubilation - it is always that more tasty when the victims are Rangers - the scenes at Tannadice in May on Tommy Burns Thursday will live on in the folklore of our great club for as long as the green and white hoops are kicking a ball.. or whatever intergalactic Dan dare spectacle the Beautiful Game evolves into in the future.

The celebrations at the final whistle, the players’ lap of honour, Gordon Strachan’s cuppa and his incredulous expression grin, the Tommy Burns tribute T-shirts, the helicopter flying over the stadium with the SPL trophy on board... for everything else there’s Mastercard.

That it all came down to the final day and its nerve-shredding finale
was arguably all a bit unnecessary. Points were thrown away carelessly against the likes of St. Mirren and Inverness that would have made Celtic’s march to the title as prosaic as the two previous successes.
Nonetheless, following the Motherwell defeat we were staring down both barrels, potentially 12 points behind Wattie’s Wonderteam and to win seven games on the bounce, two of them against Rangers, deserves to be acknowledged as a fine achievement, particularly given the cloud that must have been hanging over Celtic Park from the turn of the year when the news of Tommy Burns’ illness took an ominous turn for the worse.

Let’s not overlook the fact that we were also once again able to compete with the best the Champions League had to offer and domestically picked up more points than anybody else.

In the wake of Tannadice, and as a result of his demeanour following the death of his friend and colleague, the stock of Gordon Strachan was at its highest. A few weeks later and a familiar pattern is beginning to emerge. The domestic league title is almost regarded as a given and the aim is to qualify for the last eight of the Champions League, regardless of the fact that we don’t even know who we will be facing in the group stage yet. In order to do this, signings in key positions must be made and they must be better than the players we already have, preferably the kind that Real Madrid and Manchester United are after.

Interviewed for the Celtic View in July, WGS asserted that the football Celtic produced last season was better than the previous term (ahem!), and that they improved on last season in terms of goalscoring and goals conceded. He has also pointed out that while he recognises that the team needs some new players - and we all know what positions are crying out for improvement - he is limited in terms of the market he is able to shop in. (there are still four weeks of this current transfer window remaining so we’ll wait and see who arrives before

He has earned a certain latitude in these matters - as well as a great deal of gratitude for his efforts - and most fans would accept that what he is saying is largely true. But if there is one wish that we would have for the new season it is that we could have more performances like those against Spartak Moscow and the 5:0 rout of Hearts and fewer like... well, most of the others (Champions League excepted).

The manager has written his page in the history books in terms of the results he has achieved. Is it too much to ask that he addresses the issue of empty seats at home games by adopting a more entertaining style of play?

Lest this is too negative a thought to start the season with, here’s a couple of interesting facts to dwell on as you wait for the flag to be unfurled:

Celtic have won three-in-a-row three times previously in the club’s history. On each occasion they have gone on to make it four. Willie Maley led the club to six titles between 1905 and 1910 and four between 1914 and 1917, and Jock Stein, of course, won nine between 1966 and 1974.

On each of the past two occasions that there has been a three-in-a-row title success in Scottish football, it has been followed by nine-in-a-row.

C’mon the Hoops!