Leigh Griffiths is raring to go for five-in-a-row regardless of who makes up the Premiership.
Sevco’s two leg hammering from Motherwell has been greeted with despair in some quarters with old school thinkers unable to grasp the modern economics of living within your means.
The old days of a club from Ibrox financially doped upto their eyeballs has yet to take root with romantic notions of a challenge to Celtic coming with a limitless overdraft and players recruited on tax-free deals.
Thursday at Ibrox and Sunday at Fir Park highlighted three years of gross mis-management with the fledgling club having to take on loans of £9.5m to complete the season in third place in the second tier of Scottish football.
How that shambles is transformed into a top six Premiership team, let alone title challengers, has yet to be fully explained other than ‘just because.’
Yesterday Griffiths was speaking ahead of Scotland’s glamour friendly with Qatar on Friday but was inevitably asked about next season’s top flight.
“We can only beat who is in front of us, whether it was Rangers or Motherwell,” the 20 goal Celtic striker explained. “It is Motherwell, we congratulate them and we will see them next season.
“We have won the league the last four years and we are looking to do the same next year.
“There will be stern tests from Aberdeen, Dundee United and Inverness but it is all about what we do and if we go out and play to our maximum we will win the league.
“Aberdeen gave us a good test this year and it was difficult for us in spells.
“At the start of the season under our new manager (Ronny Deila) things weren’t going our way and Aberdeen were rightly at the top of the league but since the turn of the year we hit a good patch of form and in the end we ran away with the league.”
As Celtic prepare for the new season and a fresh attempt at the Champions League the financial crisis at Ibrox deepens.
With a dozen stars out of contract and the Newcastle five returning to St James Park the new board have plenty of decisions to make before explaining to Mike Ashley why they were unable to find a nominated adviser to remain on the Alternative Investment Market.
Season ticket details have yet to be released with a growing number of supporters beginning to question whether Dave King is a man of his word or a glib and shameless liar as he was described by a South African judge.
With nowhere to trade shares and the company basically being insolvent another share issue is as likely as the Champions League anthem being heard outside the marble stairway of unsurpassed dignity.
As Hibs, St Mirren, Falkirk and Queen of the South build their squads for the new Championship season the sound of silence from Ibrox confirms that the challenge to Celtic will come from the east coast rather than across the city.
