Hearts defender Stuart Findlay has dismissed claims that Celtic are there for the taking as the teams prepare to meet in this weekend’s Scottish Premiership clash at Tynecastle…
Although Brendan Rodgers’ side currently sit five points adrift of the league leaders, Findlay maintains that suggestions of turmoil at Celtic are greatly exaggerated.
The 30-year-old has played a central role in Hearts’ impressive early-season form, with Derek McInnes’ side sitting at the summit of the Premiership table ahead of Sunday’s encounter.
Spirits are high in Gorgie, yet Findlay was quick to stress that the Scottish champions command full respect, labelling Celtic as their most formidable challenge of the season by some distance.
Celtic make the trip to Tynecastle buoyed by their midweek 2-1 Europa League victory over Sturm Graz, a result that pushed the Hoops into those elusive top 24 spots.
However, injuries to key figures such as Cameron Carter-Vickers, Alistair Johnston, Kelechi Iheanacho and Daizen Maeda have presented Brendan Rodgers with fresh selection headaches. However, Findlay maintains that Celtic’s quality, depth, and winning mentality continue to set the standard for every other team in Scotland.
Speaking via Hearts official X account, Findlay said: “You hear whispers of this [vulnerability], and I think it’s a little bit unfair towards Celtic. If you look at it; and they’ve lost one league game all season, they’re not exactly in dire straits.”
Findlay added: “People can say what they want on the outside, use looking in we know that we’re going to be playing by far our toughest test that we’ve had, and probably the toughest test we’re going to face in the league.”
🗣️ Stuart Findlay previews Sunday’s Premiership encounter with Celtic.
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— Heart of Midlothian FC (@JamTarts) October 24, 2025
The upcoming match on Sunday will gauge both Hearts’ growth as a team under McInnes and Celtic’s resilience to going five behind in the league. While the close-quarters intensity of Tynecastle usually benefits the Jambos, Celtic’s familiarity with winning high-pressure encounters will give Rodgers confidence that his side can reduce the gap.
It is all set up for a cracker!
COYBIG!
Conor Spence
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There’s no denying just how slowly we have started this campaign so far.
However, I would like to think that last season we started like a house on fire.
But it also took its toll in the second half of last season, where we dropped off hugely in our performance levels.
Was it a case of hitting our peak levels, to early within an extended season, with the amount of games involved for so many of our key players?
Would like to think so, and Rodgers has taken a slightly different approach this season, where we can get back to remaining stronger for the second half of a season?
We had got nowhere near our peak levels so far this season, which might not be a bad thing for ourselves, upon the bigger picture of an entire season involved imo?
This run of games, starting again tomorrow, will give ourselves a far better indication as to where our overall squad strength actually is.
Still don’t believe it is as poor as to many within our support is trying to make out imo?
That’s the test now for Rodgers and our squad to overcome now,with extra challenges involved for ourselves.
Finally getting a decent performance with plenty of chances created on Thursday, was a massive step in the right direction Finally.
Only foundations built on Thursday, now is time to really start building upon that.
Nothing to suggest that it can’t be achieved, as long as everyone pulls together in the same direction in the Celtic way manner imo.