CELTIC legend Paul Lambert has played down talk of a crisis at his former club, labelling such rhetoric ‘the Glasgow madness’, and he has full faith that manager Brendan Rodgers is the man to turn their recent dip in domestic form around.
The champions lost their second Premiership match in a row at the weekend as they went down to Hearts at Celtic Park. That defeat, coming on the back of the 2-1 loss to Kilmarnock the previous weekend, has left the door open for Rangers to potentially usurp Celtic at the top of the table if they are to win their two games in hand.
But Lambert fully believes that Rodgers will be able to correct Celtic’s course, and that he will have his team firing on all cylinders for the massive clash against their city rivals at the end of the month.
“Celtic have had unbelievable success in the last 10 or 11 years, and they are just having a little blip,” Lambert said.
“They are still sitting top of the league. If that is a crisis, then I wouldn’t mind having a crisis like that.
“Brendan is a top manager, and he will handle it no problem at all. He knows exactly what Celtic is all about.
“He has worked at the highest level, and I have absolutely no worries about Celtic this season at all, none whatsoever.
“Once they get their players back as well they will be stronger, and they will likely do some business in January as well.
“It’s the Glasgow madness I guess. Celtic will be totally fine. The fans are always loyal there, and they will get behind them.
“The fans are important to the team, that is for sure. The fans are important, that is who you are playing for. You are playing for them, and for the club.
“They have had over a decade of sheer dominance, and because they have one or two wee ropey spells then people think it’s a crisis. It’s not, it’s only because of the Glasgow madness that it is framed like that.
“As long as the players are focused on what they want to do and how they want to do it, they will be fine. They have a top manager there, so I wouldn’t read too much into that.
“They have a top manager, they are still top of the league, and Rangers still need to go to Celtic Park in a couple of weeks as well.
“I don’t worry just because they have had a couple of results going against them.”
