They can’t stop rising to the occasion
CELTIC have coped with stress and pressure all season.
Make no mistake they’re going to have to do so again because every shred of it is on them at Hampden today.
Aberdeen are very dangerous opponents and have a real chance to causing a major upset.
Brendan Rodgers has spoken at length on various occasions this season about how his troops have learned how to cope with pressure points before and during games since he arrived.
He’s right. The Champions League qualifiers had moments which needed managing, Premiership games where Celtic have trailed against Motherwell and St Johnstone or in big cup ties.
Rodgers and his team had the right mentality to stave off any strains and allow their superior skills to win the day.
In many ways it’s written in the stars that Celtic go and complete the Treble this week of all weeks.
There’s just something about the club’s timing. They won the Double in their Centenary Year. On their 125th birthday they managed to sink Barcelona in the Champions League.
Now in the week where the 50th anniversary of the Lisbon Lions is being celebrated it seems fate that Celts go on and complete the job.
Trouble with these landmarks is the players will know all about them and that can add pressure.
Celtic fans turning up expecting a WEEK stroll can forget it because winning a treble isn’t simple. If it was it would have been won more than three times in the club’s history.
And if there is one side who are capable of upsetting the applecart it is Aberdeen because I have been hugely impressed with them again throughout this season.
Derek McInnes is a fine manager and he’s done another superb job.
There is a lot swirling around him and the club at the moment, started off by Pedro Caixinha coming out with a Warbism about cycles at Pittodrie coming to an end.
How he worked that out I’m not sure.
Niall McGinn is leaving, he’ll be replaced. Ryan Jack might go to Rangers but Greg Tansey has already been signed for next season from Inverness Caley Thistle and he’s a perfectly adequate replacement for a boy I think is overrated.
Kenny McLean and Jonny Hayes will likely stay despite interest so I don’t see mass squad upheaval.
The managerial position is also under scrutiny with the links to