BACK TO REALITY
Treble is history and now we have to go again, says Gordon
BRENDAN RODGERS will gather his players in an Austrian hotel this week to ram home a simple message. What happened last season is gone. Four weeks since the Scottish Cup final, it’s time for Celtic to go again.
Craig Gordon welcomes the fresh start more than most.
A joyous, Treble-winning season ended on a low note for the keeper when Harry Kane snatched a stoppage-time equaliser for England against Scotland.
Asked if he might have come for the cross beforehand, the 34-year-old admitted he’s spent recent weeks asking himself the same question.
‘I only saw it again for the first time a few days ago,’ he said.
‘From what I thought at the time, I probably still think the way I did after seeing it again.
‘I thought Kane was going to head it — but by the time he lets it drop to the point where he can volley it, the distance is really close. It’s close to the goal but, for me to attack that ball in the air, it would have been another seven or eight yards to get to it above his head height.
‘There are split-second decisions and I won’t get every one right in the season. But I got most of them right through 60 games.
‘When you look back you may think I wish I’d done the other thing — but I’m comfortable in my own head why I made that decision.
‘You can discuss if it was right or wrong but the process of me thinking: “Should I stay on the line or go for it,” was the right thought process. I can take that.’
Celtic’s campaign began in the sleepy surroundings of Rohrbach last night, with Jonny Hayes making his debut against Austrian second division side BW Linz.
A world away from the joy of Scotland’s national stadium at the end of May when Celtic sealed the Treble. But Rodgers is clear — that’s in the past now.
‘To have gone through last season, and done what we did, was an incredible achievement,’ acknowledged Gordon.
‘Even now, maybe we still don’t know how good an achievement it actually was. Maybe as time goes on, it might sink in a bit more.
‘But now we go again, and the manager’s made it clear what he expects in pre-season. There is no slacking off. We have to do the same things we did last pre-season and put the same amount of work in, and tactically get ready.
‘We’ve got some time pencilled in for later on this week to deal with that. Not to consign last season to the past, but to talk about it, and work out how we’re going to move into the future.
‘You can’t start again, because you want to take the confidence and the good things from that into the new season. But it’s about guarding against complacency. We now want to improve as a team and do something even better.’
It’s hard to see how. By reaching the Champions League group stage again, perhaps. Another Treble. But Rodgers plans to outline the targets — and how they’ll achieve them — before Saturday’s game against Rapid Vienna. ‘We’ll go through all that later on this week,’ said Gordon. ‘We’ve got our schedule and how we’re going to go about that.’ The problem with winning everything is obvious. There’s only one way to go when a team has reached the domestic summit. Rodgers has a stated aim of making Celtic a consistent Champions League team within three years — last-16 regulars no less. If they fail, a run in the Europa League would be a decent consolation. Yet still the question gnaws away. How do Celtic top the last campaign? ‘We have to move on and be the best we can be, and try to win everything we go into,’ added Gordon (left). ‘We can try and do it again — try and win three trophies.
‘At some point, somebody will beat us, but we have to do our best to try to keep the run going as long as possible.’
What it all meant to Gordon after the Scottish Cup final became clear in a video clip showing him falling to his knees before collapsing face down on the Hampden turf.
These are treasured moments in his injury-interrupted career.
‘The training’s been brilliant, the amount of effort the boys are putting in,’ he said. ‘It’s a great place to be. Everybody gets on with everybody — there are no egos.
‘You don’t get that very often in football. I’ve certainly not had that through an awful lot of my career. Genuinely, everybody wants the best for each other.
‘When we go on that pitch we are together.
‘Some people get on better with certain people and there are little groups who go about, but it doesn’t make any difference on the pitch.
‘We respect the fact people have different characters — but when we get on that pitch, it’s great knowing you have boys beside you who will never give up. That comes from everyone getting on and no one wanting to get beaten.’