‘Off days don’t exist’ for Celtic ‘mentality monsters’

You should probably listen when Premier League champion Kasper Schmeichel says that what Celtic do year in and year out is “extremely difficult and shouldn’t be underestimated.”

When Joe Hart and Brendan Rodgers reconnected last summer, the 38-year-old was given the Celtic gloves by long-time friend Joe Hart.

The two won the Community Shield and the FA Cup at Leicester City. Prior to that, Danish international Schmeichel was a member of the team that underwent Claudio Ranieri won the league, and he has won numerous individual accolades throughout his career.

He currently holds a Scottish Premiership and League Cup, and he hopes to return in time to add a Scottish Cup medal and help Celtic win their sixth domestic treble in nine years.

In Schmeichel’s Leicester days, the first title win couldn’t have been more unforeseeming, but the second couldn’t have been more anticipated.

He is not interested in that narrative, though.

The Scottish league and the competition are heavily criticized, but you must win them all, Schmeichel told Sky Sports.

It has been a case of when, not if, Celtic would win their 13th title in 14 seasons, as it has been with so much of that campaign.

There has been discussion recently about how routine these trophy days are.

Rodgers, Schmeichel, Rodgers, and Captain Callum McGregor have all rejected that sentiment. You don’t get tired of it, they said in response.

Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton described Rodgers’ side as “mentality monsters” on Sky Sports. They “have made winning the league look so simple and straightforward again.”

In his first season at Celtic, Sutton made his third treble in 2000 at Chelsea. They are now on track to complete their sixth campaign in nine.

They “are winning them every other season,” Sutton said. “They’re phenomenal mentally. It is so underestimated, he said.

Rodgers’ Celtic scored five goals without reply on Saturday, the day they won the title for the fourth time at Tannadice, but the tumultuous start was soon forgotten.

They sprint over the finish line instead of falling over it.

It was Celtic’s 100th goal of the season when Nicolas Kuhn cushioned in his 20th of the afternoon. After the break, Adam Idah added the 101st and 102nd.

They scored 106 goals during the manager’s first year in charge, known as the “invincible campaign of 2016-17. Rodgers stated prior to the game that the target was now better than that.

To accomplish that, they need to have four games in which to score five goals. If you factor in St Johnstone’s semi-final defeat last week and their final two wins, they would probably do it with 10 in their final two.

That relentlessness is what we’re all about, Schmeichel remarked.

Any team that wins the championship must possess that internal drive. It is up to us to put them into practice, starting with the manager.

“We are constantly striving for better, striving for more,” he says.

Celtic will make sure they enjoy this one despite the obvious noise from the outside that surrounds the ostensibly monotonous film, which plays title after title, trophy after trophy.

On the final day of the season against St Mirren, McGregor will win his ninth cape. His total with the club is 24th overall.

With 26 major awards, James Forrest surpasses Lisbon Lion Bobby Lennox and is now the most decorated player in the club’s history.

You could argue that the two senior players’ continued presence during the full-time whistle made them feel it for the first time.

According to McGregor, 31, “you have to cherish it and live in the moment because you’ll never have the opportunity to do it again.”

However, the former Scotland international had good chances of doing it again for the majority of his career. Not so much, Schmeichel, your teammate.

He already had a taste for it in the south, but he now has an opportunity to capitalize on that buzz.