Why Celtic Treble talk isn't banned as Brendan Rodgers accepts new 'expectation'

Daily Record

08-05-2025

The Parkhead club have enjoyed an unprecedented period of dominance over the last decade
The old football cliche you always hear players and managers rhyme out is 'taking it one game at a time'.
But the truth is, the Treble has always been at the back of Celtic's minds.
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Just moments after last season's dramatic Old Firm Scottish Cup Final triumph, you'd think Callum McGregor would be on top of the world.
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But the serial-winning captain made it clear he wasn't happy knowing he'd ended the campaign with just two out of three winners' medals and immediately set his sights on making amends in 2024/25.
With just a couple of weeks of the campaign remaining, McGregor is on course to do just that with his SIXTH Treble in just nine seasons.
All-conquering boss Brendan Rodgers started this unprecedented period of domination the moment he first stepped foot inside Celtic Park as manager in 2016.
At that time, the Hoops had completed just three clean sweeps in 128 years. Fast forward to 2025 and they have hoovered up 22 of the 27 pieces of silverware on offer in Scotland.
Victory over Aberdeen in this month's end-of-season showpiece at Hampden will clinch a world record-extending NINTH domestic clean sweep.
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Rodgers - the third most successful manager in Celtic's history - has been the catalyst for this golden chapter. And the Irishman reckons there is now an "expectation" within the Parkhead faithful that all three major trophies will end up in Glasgow's east end.
He told Celtic TV: "Listen, we always have to keep the humility, which is really important. I think we mentioned that at the beginning of the season, what our aims were domestically, and that was to win every domestic cup competition and the league.
"So we're two-thirds there, but we know this last part is a very difficult part. I think when I came in 2016, the Treble wasn't mentioned so much. It was just not the thing that happened.
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"But now that the players have had success from that moment, they feel good and they know the expectations. They know the desires of the club and what it is we want to achieve.
"So, it's not mentioned as such, but we've known all the way through the season what we wanted to achieve.
'When I came in 2016, it had only been done three times in the history of the club and when you think from 1888 to that point, it's a remarkably long period of time with brilliant managers and brilliant players.
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"But what we tried to do in 2016 was up the level of professionalism, up the mentality, so that everyone then had to come in tune with my vision and how we wanted to work.
'And once we achieved that in the 2017 final, it was a real good feeling with a group of players that they were inspired then to keep going. And from then the club has been able to roll it out and do it a few more times since.
'But it's definitely something that's an expectation, which is an incredible thing to say when you know what you have to go through in order to win the three competitions, it's not easy at all.
"People take it for granted now that that's what's going to happen, but there are so many things can go against you as a player and a manager.
'And for us to have done that over the course of nine seasons, it's a true reflection of the professionalism, the quality and you also need that bit of good fortune in the journey as well.'