Superb Celtic rejuvenated under Neil Lennon

Celtic’s start to the Premiership season could not have been any more scintillating and celebratory had Neil Lennon scripted it himself.

Ryan Christie scores the first of his three goals to put Celtic 2-0 ahead. Picture: SNS.

Little wonder that the club’s manager was left going all-of-a-flutter on an eighth straight flag day for the champions with his “wow, just wow” apt summing up of the seven-goal smashing of a supine St Johnstone.

Celtic appear a team so refreshed, revitalised and reborn under Lennon – and this without Christoper Jullien and Jozo Simunovic, Kieran Tierney, Marian Shved, Tom Rogic and Lewis Morgan in the starting line-up as they chase down a record ninth straight title.

In his spell as interim manager, Lennon, right, struggled to squeeze goals out of the squad, with only 18 netted in 14 games. In a mere five games as permanent manager at the beginning of this fledgling campaign, courtesy of threats being fashioned from all fronts, he has watched his team thunder in 19 goals.

However, whether across the next month they can continue on all front in the vivacious vein that brought a biggest league win in three years; a record scoreline against the Perth side and a first senior hat-trick for a Ryan Christie, who is developing a lethal shoot-on-sight policy, will have much to do with storylines out of their control.

The Champions League third round qualifier that sees them away to Cluj for the first leg of the tie on Wednesday isn’t a gimme. However, Lennon’s side appear to have enough in their armoury to find away past the Romanian champions.

Tomorrow might dictate the likelihood of them following that up by progressing from the play-off round to the promised land of the group stages.

The lunchtime draw in Nyon could be potentially kind or killing to the Scottish title holders. They would fancy themselves strongly against the winners of third-round meetings between Maribor and Rosenborg and APOEL and Qarabag. That confidence would ebb profoundly were they to find Slavia Prague or Young Boys of Berne – who both enter the competition at this stage - blocking their path. Young Boys blitzed the Swiss title last season, finishing 20 points above second placed Basel. In the same campaign, they reached the Champions League group stages where they notched a win over Juventus. Moreover, Switzerland is three places above 20th-placed Scotland in the UEFA rankings.

The Czech Republic is ranked 13th, and that owes much to the efforts of their champions Slavia Prague. They have lost key players over the summer but the core of the squad that knocked-out Seville, Bordeaux and Genk on their way to losing out to eventual winners Chelsea in the quarter-finals of last season’s Europa League remain.

Aside, from this, there is another potential development that could rain on Celtic’s parade. Too many sources – including Lennon – have too often predicted that Arsenal will return with another offer for Tierney that it seems sure to happen before the English transfer window closes on Thursday.

It would be inexplicable were the London club to bother submitting another bid in an attempt to bring a resolution to this summer-long saga if it wasn’t one that, at last, met Celtic £25m valuation and the requirement to stump that up in good order, and without a reliance on chancey add-ons.

Tierney’s pelvic problems have limited his involvement to nine games in 2019. However talented is the 22-year-old then, and he has the capacity to reach a level beyond Liverpool’s Andy Robertson, his influence on the pitch has not been significant for approaching eight months.

His loss, then, would be felt by the support as much for what he was meant to represent to them: the boy who made good by wearing the shirt and living the dream” – as he used to forever talk about when he was the wide-eyed youth making the breakthrough to the senior ranks.

His desire to perform weekly at the very highest level of club football, and earn £75,000-a-week should never be begrudged him, but the Celtic faithful somehow convinced themselves that their club was the be all and end all for a player who was simply one of them who happened to be good enough to be on the pitch rather than watching from the stands.

They allowed themselves to be blinded to the realities of modern football, just as they did in harbouring a preposterous sense of betrayal when Brendan Rodgers left for a better offer. This consistency never give their board credit for recognising the need to be business-like in how they run their club. Even as their model looks to provide a platform for the title history they crave.