IT was the most premature 10-in-a-row gesture since the days of Richard Gough at Ibrox early in the 1997-98 season. Brendan Rodgers marched over to the corner of Celtic Park which houses the Green Brigade and the standing section on Saturday and held both hands aloft, delighting a constituency who had sung and danced, taps ‘aff, for much of the second half of a fairly routine victory against Kilmarnock.
The Northern Irishman joked afterwards that he was merely “stretching his fingers” but as queasy as some of a nervous disposition will feel about this – all that triumphalism certainly fell flat at Ibrox when Wim Jansen’s Celtic beat them to the title that season. On glorious sun-kissed days like these the notion of the former Liverpool manager hand-delivering these supporters their holy grail doesn’t seem like such an outlandish prediction.
Even as the sun started to dip behind the Parkhead stands on Saturday evening, Celtic Park remained a hive of activity. On the field, the cast of international footballers such as Nir Bitton, Emilio Izaguirre, Erik Sviatchenko and Gary Mackay-Steven, who had been unused substitutes or hadn’t made the cut against Kilmarnock, played a spirited possession game under the watchful eye of the club’s backroom staff.
A bride and groom were seated in the home dug-out, getting photos taken for a wedding reception presumably scheduled to take place elsewhere within the ground. On the other side of the tunnel, an excited travelling party of tourists had been granted permission to press gang first-team players into an impromptu autograph session. On days like these, with all these various revenue streams coming to fruition, you glimpse how massive Celtic could still be, and how much of their potential remains untapped. Little wonder chief executive Peter Lawwell is so keen to make headway on plans to develop a commercial centre around the ground including a hotel and possibly a museum.
But all that legacy stuff, and all this 10 in a row business, can wait. Because Celtic have enough to be getting on with this season. Having made 39 steps towards the first invincible domestic league season since 1899, there are only eight more matches to negotiate before the club’s class of 2016-17 take their place in the history books. They stand on the cusp of the fourth domestic treble in the club’s history while in league play alone the 100-point barrier, and the 100-goal barrier, both seem distinctly achievable. Compared to the 102 goals scored and 99 points racked up in Neil Lennon’s last season in charge, with seven games to go they already have 90 points and 85 goals to their name this season.
“Yes I think so [an 100 league goal season is feasible],” said Scott Sinclair, whose 23rd of the season restored Celtic’s lead after a deflected Jordan Jones strike had equalised a low first-half effort from Stuart Armstrong. James Forrest’s third, after a deflected strike from substitute Moussa Dembele, was merely the icing on the cake. “We keep creating chances every game and have got players in the team to score the goals as well. Even Stu [Armstrong] coming from central midfield, he is adding to the tally.”
Sinclair feels that the manner of Celtic’s displays this season are slowly turning around the perception of Scottish football south of the Border and he is certainly the poster boy for how Brendan Rodgers can transform a player’s career.
At the age of 28, it remains unclear how much appetite there will be this summer to offer him a return trip to England but the Northern Irishman’s decision to stay provides him with a further reason to remain too. With 23 goals to his name, surpassing his best-ever tally of 27 from Swansea’s promotion season, he already seems likely and a return to the England squad is the next item on his to-do list, even if it may be asking too much for that to happen ahead of the meeting with his club pals with Scotland on June 10.
“It [Rodgers re-signing] is great for me, but it not just great only for me: it is for everyone in the whole squad,” he said. “Some of the players before weren’t even being talked about but now everyone has raised their game. Having him signing the contract is great for stability.
“It is easy for people to say negative things about the league and things like that,” he added. “But I think people have to look at it. No matter who you are playing against, every game is difficult. The main thing he has done for me is get me back playing again and enjoying it – which you can see on the pitch.”
And the really bad news for all their rivals, including Rangers, is that – while they weren’t exactly at their scintillating best on Saturday – it may not be long before they are firing on all cylinders again.
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