JOE HART insists that Celtic are ready for the new campaign to begin ahead of Aberdeen’s visit to Parkhead on Sunday.
The Premiership champions will be celebrating flag day in Glasgow’s east end this weekend as they aim for a second consecutive league title and rounded off their pre-season with a 2-0 win over Norwich City on Saturday.
Manager Ange Postecoglou used the friendly to share some game-time around the squad and although Hart is raring to go ahead of this weekend’s fixture against Jim Goodwin’s Dons, the veteran shot-stopper insists that last season’s success has been put to the back of the players’ minds.
“We’re trying to get minutes, trying to get everything right to put ourselves in as good a position to start on Sunday,” he said after the win over Norwich. “I thought this game was good.
“We’ve put ourselves in the best position we can. That has been the message. You can’t build into a season. We can’t build on what we did last year as last year has gone.
“We set a level and we want to be at that level when we start on Sunday.
“I don’t feel we have a target on our backs in terms of how we are behaving. The message from the manager, in my opinion, has been that we need to be the best that we can be. Everyone is free to do what they need to do, everyone else is going to run their own race.
“We have a squad of 25/30 players and we work hard every single day with the same intention, to get better and improve as a team.
“That’s the message that I’m getting and that’s the message that is going to put us in a good place.
“We’ve obviously got quality and we’ve obviously got winners, but the better we get as a team, the more likely we are going to get the results we want.”
