Laugh? I never thought I'd start!

Published 23rd Apr 2018

Will the more excitable element contained within the Celtic support now be exploring the possibility of a guard of honour being formed by Graeme Murty's team at full-time if Brendan Rodgers' side have formally won the league title next Sunday afternoon?

I'm using up my full quota of flippancy now because the remainder of this week will see all smiles extinguished and a policy of straight-faced pragmatism being adopted as D-day approaches.

Celtic's manager said at the weekend he believed he lived in a dream-like state while working for the club and would day awaken from it to re-join the real world.

That day will come on Sunday at Celtic Park because the game against Rangers will be concerned with matters of this earth and allow no time at all for reverie.

It will not, for instance, be enough to merely win the title and claim a seventh, successive championship for Celtic.

The Celtic fans will demand the ritualistic slaughter of the opposition trounced 4 - 0 the last time the sides met in order to underline the gulf between the champions and their civic rivals.

A draw may actually be enough to win the league flag, but that result would seem like an anti-climax for the more zealous of Rodgers' fan base.

There is always the chance that Rangers could win the match, of course, and do what Manchester United did to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on April 7 when the league title was there to be won by Pep Guardiola's side.

That would not so much put the title on hold here as put the Celtic support under sedation to cope with their sense of loss.

Like I say, I'm using up the flippancy quota before humour is outlawed the closer we get to Sunday and the weekend hostilities.

Saturday's defeat from Hibs should have a sobering effect in the first place. It proved that this season's seekers of a double treble are a strange lot.

Celtic now rarely play two good games in a row following their previous season of invincibility.

They are also prone to a whimsical form of defending which can at times make them resemble a side trying to do their level best to put the ball into their own net on the opposition's behalf.

And this is not a shortcoming suffered by Dedryck Boyata on his own.

The Celtic fans also have to hope that Scott brown is at his imperious best against Rangers, on the basis that when he plays Celtic flourish.

Hibs' John McGinn had the measure of Celtic's captain, and then some, at the weekend and Rodgers' side suffered as a consequence.

The losing manager was magnanimous enough to say the better side won the game deservedly and that there are days when you simply have to sit up and take your medicine.

In Celtic's case, these are the days when the team takes the field in an eccentric frame of mind and also take their cue from a goalkeeper with an occasionally bizarre form of distribution.

All of this was dismissed by one earnest caller to Superscoreboard on Saturday night who warbled on about Hibs' "high press" and the loss of Moussa Dembele to injury providing insurmountable hurdles for Celtic?

Really?

Celtic finished the match with Patrick Roberts, who cost Manchester City ÂŁ11m before they loaned him to Rodgers. Then there was Odsonne Edouard, valued at somewhere in the region of ÂŁ7m by his parent club, Paris St. Germain.

To say nothing of Scott Sinclair, last season's Player of the Year, and Tom Rogic, while not forgetting the Scotland internationals like Callum McGregor and Kieran Tierney.

High press? Low return from a stellar cast at Easter Road more like.

The trophies have all gone for the season where Rangers are concerned. Again.

But a win at Celtic Park would be compensation on a lavish scale for a support now bereft of belief in the people who run their club.

Ibrox looked and sounded like a sombre place on Sunday during the win over Hearts.

Empty seats. Banners about incompetence on and off the park. And the usual, plaintive cry that the fans "Deserve better."

All of that would be forgotten about, albeit temporarily, if Rangers beat Celtic for the first time on Rodgers' watch.

And what a send-off it would be for the beleaguered Graeme Murty.

Daniel Candeias once again embarrassed the interim manager by running past him to celebrate with a substitute, Andy Halliday, after he had scored Rangers' second goal.

The symbolism was obvious. The players who don't rate the manager side with each other and belittle the man in charge, if that's an appropriate description of his job status.

What now? Will the players hold up photographs in remembrance of the suspended Kenny Miller and Lee Wallace the next time they score a goal?

I'll get them all in now before prohibition comes in where laughter's concerned.

At least we may spared the Rangers guard of honour scenario.

These things aren't asked for as a sporting gesture in recognition of championship winners. They are wanted because it is not enough to have won the title, you must see your greatest rivals suffer at the same time.

Let's now just cut to the chase shall we and see who gets the bragging rights on Sunday.

Will it be Celtic for seven in a row?

Or will it be Rangers for one in a row over Rodgers?

You've got laugh, haven't you?

While you still can, that is