Lustig looks to maintain the dynasty
IT is one thing to wear the crown. Another to keep it. When you are kings of your field, there is always someone trying to force an abdication.
That is how Mikael Lustig sees Celtic’s position ahead of next season. The unprecedented achievement of back-to-back Trebles has elevated Brendan Rodgers’ side to a regal place in the history of Scottish football. For now, they sit securely in the throne.
Lustig, though, knows dynasties can fall as well as rise. Sustained glory requires constant adaptation and improvement to stay ahead of your rivals. He looks to Pep Guardiola’s imperious Barcelona team and the allconquering Spain squad that won three successive major international trophies between 2008 and 2012 for inspiration. There can be no sense of complacency, no desire to rest upon the laurels garnered from winning six consecutive domestic honours.
The more Celtic achieve, the more others — notably Rangers under the new management of Steven Gerrard — will strive to topple them. Lustig, though, feels Rodgers has instilled the kind of mentality needed to stay one step ahead.
‘When you have teams who always win — like Barcelona and Spain did for a while — everyone wants to beat you,’ said Lustig (below). ‘Of course, they are going to try and find a way to do it.
‘That’s the challenge. Every year, teams want to beat you, but we are quite confident that, if our game plan doesn’t work in a match, then we always have a Plan B or C to try and get there.
‘This season we have lost some points, absolutely. But in the main games we have always turned up and proved we are still hungry.
‘Next season, there are areas where we can try and get better. We don’t want to drop sloppy points, especially at home. So, for sure, we can still get better.’
A league-winning margin that shrank from 30 points to nine this year underlines that Celtic did not have things entirely their own way. Defeats to Hearts and Kilmarnock were also the first in domestic football during the Rodgers reign.
Yet, as Lustig points out, they prevailed on every occasion that mattered. At Pittodrie after a deflating Europa League exit to Zenit St Petersburg, at Ibrox with ten men to silence talk of a title challenge and, most recently, at Hampden in the Scottish Cup final to seal a unique accolade.
Goals in the first 25 minutes from Callum McGregor and Olivier Ntcham were enough to see off Motherwell and dispel any fears about falling at the last.
‘I enjoyed the final,’ said Lustig. ‘It was amazing. It is hard to compare with last year when we won it in the last minute (when Tom Rogic scored to defeat Aberdeen).
‘This year, we had a decent first half. There wasn’t great football in the second half but it was good enough.
‘To win a double Treble has never been done before and this is a massive club, a fantastic club. To be a part of this team is great.
‘Can we win another Treble next season? I don’t know. Of course, we always want to win trophies and we are probably always going to be favourites. But this is football. It doesn’t matter if you are so much better than the other teams, some day you are going to have a bad day or be unlucky.
‘We always want to be the best team and win trophies. That’s why we are here. The main thing is what we do at Lennoxtown to try and get better as a team.’
Signed on a pre-contract deal from Rosenborg in January 2012, the Swede will enter his eighth season as a Celtic player when the squad regroup ahead of the Champions League first qualifying round on July 10/11.
His longevity has enabled him to amass a sizeable haul of medals. Lustig surely couldn’t have envisaged securing quite such a prominent part as a history maker at Parkhead when he opted to join a club then under Neil Lennon’s management. The 31-year-old added: ‘Of course, I have won a lot of medals here, but I want more. And this club wants more. Hopefully, it is possible. ‘That hunger is always there. We sit down as a squad and have our goals in the pre-season and then we fight to go and achieve them.’
Before then, Lustig will represent his nation at this summer’s World Cup finals in Russia. ‘It’s the only time I am going to have a chance to go to the World Cup and play for my country,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t get bigger than that.
‘I feel ready to go, absolutely. I have a few weeks between now and the first game, so it should be no
problem.’