Hugh Keevins: Not arrogant, just honest

You can't spend your professional life spouting opinions on a weekly basis and then deny somebody else the opportunity to do the same thing, so I wouldn't even attempt to condemn John Collins for saying Celtic have a monopoly on the Premiership title because nobody else is clever enough to take it from them.

If Celtic's assistant manager thinks his team's domestic opponents don't have the smarts to compete with the defending champions then it's his risk to take by making that opinion public knowledge rather than keeping it an in-house secret for Lennoxtown's ears only.

Ordinarily you'd be tempted to say it's the kind of forthright statement that's guaranteed to come back and bite you on a tender area sooner rather than later, and that the pain in the rectum caused would be no more than you deserved for being so arrogant in the first place.

You also wouldn't have to initiate a prolonged search throughout the game to find those who believe John is one of those with a high opinion of himself, or struggle to find a detractor who considers Collins to be someone who has never knowingly passed up on the opportunity to tell you how good he is either.

But the bottom line is Ronny Deila's number two is absolutely correct in his reading of the league situation as it stands, for the time being at any rate.

Real life, as we previously knew it at the highest level of the Scottish game, doesn't resume until the start of next season heralds the return of Rangers to the top flight.

If Collins wants realism to dominate the debate on why Celtic are, in the meantime, on their way to a fifth successive title in May then it's only fair to lay all of the cards on the table at once.

Being at Firhill on Sunday afternoon in the immediate aftermath of his acerbic assessment of the SPFL's top flight presented the chance to take a temperature check, and the patient is indeed lop sided in shape.

You can have the smarts, but if you don't have the parts then resistance is useless.

Partick Thistle at home to Celtic was a mis-match because the visitors had strength in depth and the home team were an anaemic and inadequate side easily swept aside.

That's what happens when the cash rich meet the financially disadvantaged. It's all about resources, playing and fiscal.

Celtic will win the league in a canter, as will Rangers in the division below them. If you don't accept that then you don't have the faintest notion of what reality looks like.

The fun begins when the close season comes and Rangers' owner Dave King is obliged to pony up and give Warburton the money to tweak his title-winning side to the degree that makes them instant challengers to Celtic for the top prize.

There'll be no such thing as time to acclimatise to the rarified atmosphere, and no inclination on the part of the Rangers support towards accepting a further period of subserviance.

They will demand a tilt at the bragging right from the off and King would be naive to think they won't come looking for him if he doesn't bankroll the assault on Celtic's hitherto un-challenged supremacy.

The other point to be made about Sunday in Maryhill in particular, and Celtic's un-obstructed residency at the top of the pile, is that it can be boring in the extreme.

The second half against Partick Thistle was, Kris Commons' goal apart, unremittingly dull and it says much for the patience of the Celtic support that they made no attempt to register any displeasure over that state of affairs.

But if there's no Champions League group stages to look forward to as a source of genuine excitement in between mundane league victories then good manners might give way to bad temper.

That's why Malmo will need to be beaten over two legs later this month.

Expecting fans to turn up and watch the routine routing of teams the Celtic management have now acknowledged aren't fit to lace their boots isn't a sustainable business plan in terms of domestic competition.

If Celtic's opponents aren't clever that doesn't mean the fans are daft as well.

The deal is the Celtic support will buy into a group stage package of tickets and shelve pragmatism in favour of dealing in dreams where Europe is concerned.

You could argue Celtic aren't clever enough to survive a Champions League section in which they are as disadvantaged as Partick Thistle were in another context on Sunday.

But the people who buy the tickets won't accept that until it has been mathematically proven to be the case.

Qualification means an automatic deposit of fifteen million pounds into Celtic's bank account, with at least another five million to follow from points gained and match revenue.

Money to be salted away for the day when Celtic are once again required to acknowledge to existence of legitimate contenders for the league title.

And we're not talking about Aberdeen on their annual budget of just over two million pounds.

We're talking serious money for serious times and the resumption of historic hostilities.