Sometimes I’d like to give my boots to other people and let them come and see what the pressure feels like

WHETHER or not Celtic still have the wherewithal to land a telling blow in the title race, we shall know soon enough. For now, though, they have at least scraped themselves off the canvas. They are bobbing and weaving once again. They are still in there fighting.

Sparked by a deserved if futile win over Lille in the Europa League at the outset of December, Neil Lennon’s side finally have a run of form to speak of.

Home wins over Kilmarnock and Ross County may, ordinarily, only be what’s expected of them. But such fixtures felt like tripwires as their form nosedived in October and November.

A Scottish Cup final victory against Hearts may belong to last season as far as the record books are concerned but the significance of that epic triumph also very much belongs to the here and now.

‘I really have the feeling that we are now on a good vibe,’ said defender Christopher Jullien.

‘ I’m feeling good on the field, but you can see that everyone is feeling good.

‘When we are all going in the one direction, when we j ust think positively and we count on each other, football is easy.

‘With the quality we have, we can do it. But everyone was questioning

Maybe it is easy when you have confidence. But when you don’t, it is really hard

what we had because we had a bad run.

‘But now I can’t wait for the next games because I am really confident about the quality of the side and can’t wait for the results.’

Such was the severity of Celtic’s downturn that the search for answers would have occupied the minds of Oxford’s f i nest scientists f or another year.

Amid the obvious factors — the impact of Covid, injuries, debatable recruitment, no supporters — myriad wild stories were passed off as fact.

Jullien believes the prime reason for the slump was much more prosaic.

‘This is football and sometimes it doesn’t work as you want,’ added the Frenchman.

‘Fans or other people are watching the games on the TV and sometimes they don’t see the work that we are doing to try and make it better.

‘But I also think that 80 per cent of football is in the head. It’s in the brain.

‘A professional f ootballer has confidence when he i s thinking positive. Everything that he is doing is just easy. The game feels easy.

‘Sometimes people can look into it and think that it’s always easy. Maybe it is when you have the confidence, but when you do not have it, sometimes the game can be really hard.

‘You don’t play the game yourself. You are playing with 11 and, when things are not going in the right direction or you are not really on the same page at times, it can be different.’

Part of the difficulty Celtic face is expectation management. When a side wins one Treble, it’s celebrated. A second starts to feel almost like the norm. And by the time three threatens to become four, the feeling of coming second best begins to feel alien.

When that unprecedented run is juxtaposed beside a flagging title challenge, emotions become confused and the definition of success a matter of fierce debate.

‘Nine in a row and winning so many trophies is very difficult, but people are thinking that it is just easy because it is Celtic,’ Jullien stressed.

‘That’s what the coach tells us every day, that it’s not easy. He says to us that people outside think it is easy, but it’s not. We know it.

‘Sometimes I would like to give my boots to other people and let them come onto the field and see what the pressure feels like.

‘Football is not always easy. It can be hard. It is the job that we do and we are paid for it.’

He contends, though, that he has no problem with the sky-high expectations that come with being a Celtic player in this season, in particular.

‘We have no problem with that now,’ he stated. ‘I am now 27 years old and I just learn about these things every day.

‘With the experience that I have got now, I realise that sometimes you just have to go into your bubble and get through things and get out of any bad run and go up the way.’

Pegging back a Rangers side that’s not lost a match in half a league season appears to be a task akin to climbing Everest.

Even with three games in hand and three derbies yet to play, the odds are stacked against Lennon’s side.

But they are at least no longer in freefall. They have that foothold. At long last, they are looking upwards.

‘ Can I sense a f reedom now?’ Jullien offered. ‘Yeah, you can see it now.

‘You can see it on the field. You can see it seems easy when everyone is positive and we go in the one direction. One and two touch, balls down the sides, runs, go in front of the goal, score.

‘Football can be easy and simple if you are positive and feeling in a good way.

‘When you are on a bad run, it’s not quite like that. That’s how it goes.’