Celtic continue to come up with all answers.
A treble treble secured on Saturday at Hampden not in the bells-and-whistles fashion they’d have wanted, but in a hard grind against Hearts that might have, in some ways, given them even more satisfaction. A battle can be more rewarding than a cakewalk at times. Celtic had to dig deep to
pile another layer on to their history mountain.
On the occasion of their treble treble it’s probably fitting to talk about the Celtic pantheon and the current team’s place in that hall of fame. On Saturday, Scott Brown joined Jimmy Johnstone on 19 trophies won as a Celtic man, Mikael Lusting joined Bertie Auld on 16, Tom Rogic joined
Willie Wallace on 11.
This generation has won nine consecutive trophies and 27 consecutive cup ties, they’ve scored 338 goals in 141 domestic games over the last three seasons. They have the best players and the greatest financial clout by far, but other Celtic teams and and other Rangers teams have had similar
privileges in the past and they haven’t done what this group have done.
The consistency is remarkable, particularly in the cup competitions where over the course of three seasons you’d expect one team to catch them on a given day. Nobody has. Hearts came close, but couldn’t get it done.
After the first treble some said that it might never be done again. After the second, many said that it was unmatchable. Now that they’ve won a third the best advice would be to stop second-guessing about what they’re capable of. A quadruple treble? Would anybody bet big money against it?
More than one issue was settled at Hampden. A trophy was won and then Celtic made up their mind about who they want as permanent manager. After nine weeks of mulling it over, the board have now decided that they want Neil Lennon to continue.
The way this unfolded was bizarre, reflective, rightly or wrongly, of a club that was not exactly meticulous in their decision-making. Perhaps Celtic have been scouring Europe these past months talking to people in an attempt to give the fans what they want – a Brendan Rodgers-esque
character to shoo away whatever challenge Rangers, or anybody else, may lay down next season – but they’ve ended up offering it to the man who was under their nose all the time.
