Ange Postecoglou insists there is no chance his men for the big occasion will underestimate Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
Celtic can complete a world-record eighth domestic treble if they overcome the Scottish Cup final underdogs at Hampden on Saturday afternoon. ICT have a history of recording famous wins over the Parkhead giants, but victory for Billy Dodds and his team – out of competitive action for the past month – would rank among the most significant upsets in Scottish football history.
Celtic manager Postecoglou, however, knows he oversees a group who have delivered consistently when the heat is on, and is confident complacency will not accompany them to the national stadium.
"To be fair to the players, they've been pretty good apart from the last few weeks prior to the Aberdeen game,” he said.
"After we beat Hearts to become the champions, it's human nature that they've achieved their goal and my way of tricking them into trying to perform was to change the team and that didn't work because the guys coming in hadn't played for a while and it disrupted our cohesion.
"But apart from those two or three games...you saw on Saturday against Aberdeen that they knew trophy day was a big day. Ultimately, it was a game of no consequence but they knew.
"This group of players has always delivered on big days. They've done that consistently since round six of last year. You name me a game, apart from the Scottish Cup semi final last year, every other time it's been a big game of consequence, they've delivered.
"I'm not worried about them being complacent, irrespective of who we were facing in the cup final, it's the make up and character of this time that on a big day they will perform.
"It doesn't guarantee the result but there will be no sense of complacency in their mind. It's just not what this team is about."
The collection of four consecutive clean sweeps prior to Postecoglou’s arrival has raised the bar forever at Celtic. No longer are trebles an event to be savoured once every few decades, they are an annual expectation.
In that sense, the club have normalised something that is anything but, and Postecoglou believes it’s important not to forget that.
"That's true and it's important to contextualise that because you can talk about four or five trebles over a 30 year span but to do it in such a short space of time is unique and a crdit to this football club,” he said.
"As you know, cup competitions are always fraught. You just need one day off and that's it, the Treble is gone.
"You look at us this year. We had to beat Rangers both times in the cups and in the Scottish Cup we had to play Hearts away. We've had some tough ties.
"Just because it's been done before in recent memory, I don't think anyone dismisses it. It's still a hell of an achievement and that's why we want to try and complete it on Sunday."
