“Ten-in-a-row is going to happen. That’s a stonewaller,” says John Hartson.
“The only way that doesn’t happen is if Brendan Rodgers decides to leave Celtic, some of the players go with him and they bring in a manager that’s not as good as Rodgers.
“If you bring in a Pedro Caixinha or a Ronny Deila then that could happen and they could stop it.
“Celtic are riding the crest of a wave, they are in the ascendancy on and pitch and off the pitch they are levels above.
“They have secured £60million in the last two years through two Champions League campaigns, they have assets at the club, they get full houses every week, they are used to winning,” Hartson continued.
“Okay, they’ve drawn a few and lost a few this season but that was always going to happen. The expectation just went through the roof last season with the Invincibles. I played in a great team and we lost games. We had Henrik Larsson and Chris Sutton and lost games.
“Celtic have got Griffiths to come on, a 25-goal-a-season man to come on, if you don’t go with Dembele.”
Hartson knows a thing or two about what makes a great striker having played with Larsson and Sutton and he wasn’t too bad himself either! He is a big fan of Moussa Dembele.
“On the evidence of the recent Rangers game at Hampden, and I know he’s playing against a back four which was poor, I think he can go as high as he wants to.
“How old is he, 21? Physically he’s got it, he can cope with the demands of the Premier League. He’s been capped at senior level by France. They know all about him.
“He’ll be on a lot of clubs’ radars — it’s just a case of Celtic getting as much as they can for him.
“I don’t want to be telling Brendan Rodgers what to do. He’s not put a foot wrong as manager. He’ll have his own view on him and lots of players. There will be plenty linked with other clubs.
“A lot of it will be down to the players, if they want to move on. It’s difficult to leave Celtic because of the adulation and the way that you’re taken in Glasgow. A lot of people struggle to cope without that.
“I was different. I was happy to come away from the city. I was happy to be able to go into a restaurant, pay my way and sit at the back.”
And as far as speculation surrounding Brendan, who must be the only high profile Celtic supporting manager not to have been offered the vacant post at Ibrox, Hartson reckons he will be going nowhere anytime soon.
“Brendan is on a contract and I think he loves it at Celtic. He says he’s living the dream. He’s a God, he can do no wrong, he’s successful.
“I think Europe is the big question. He’ll want to take Celtic a bit further in Europe and to do that he’ll need funds. Celtic haven’t got £50m to buy a player. But he’ll want to take them further.”
HAVE YOU GOT YOUR MAGNIFICEN7 T-SHIRT YET?
YOU want one of these for Sunday? Order today and we’ll post out first class same day so you’ll get it on Saturday morning, in plenty of time for the game…
We have sold out on the dark green option in all sizes and have sold out of the green and grey colour option in small and medium but we have green and also grey Magnificen7 shirts available in Large, XL and XXL, while stocks last.
Order now at thecelticstarbookstore.co.uk
