Joe Hart says Celtic ’s heroics of last season are gone now. But the Parkhead keeper is adamant his team-mates are hugely driven to hit the heights again as they turn their focus fully on the start of their title defence at home to Aberdeen next Sunday.
Ange Postecoglou ’s team completed their build-up to the big kick-off when the weekend win over Norwich capped an unbeaten six-game run. The serious business now begins with Jim Goodwin’s Dons heading to Parkhead for the Premiership curtain raiser. Celtic will unfurl the league flag prior to kick-off having earned a glorious title triumph against the odds last term.
With Postecoglou having proper pre-season time with the entire group this time around and summer signings augmenting an already successful unit, Celtic are expected to kick on again in the upcoming term, Hart is ready, but warns it’s a blank canvas as he said: “We’ve put ourselves in the best position we can. That has been the message.
“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.
"It’s tough here. You need to win and you need to keep winning. But we are going to take care of ourselves and put ourselves in the best position to, hopefully, be on our mettle. If we are, we are going to win games.”
Captain Callum McGregor stated on the night Celtic won the title that they will have a target on their backs now as champions and have to set the standards again to maintain their high levels.
Hart says everyone remains humble and hungry as he added: “We’ve obviously got quality and we’ve got winners, but the better we get as a team, the more likely we are going to get the results we want.
“I don’t feel we have a target on our backs. The message from the manager, in my opinion, has been that we need to be the best that we can be. Everyone else is free to do what they need to do, everyone else is going to run their own race. We work hard every single day with the same intention, to get better and improve as a team.”
Postecoglou used 21 players against the Canaries to ensure almost all of the squad got more minutes into their legs.
Hart said: “We’re trying to get everything right to put ourselves in as good a position to start on Sunday. I thought the game was good.”
With Carl Starfelt set to rejoin full training with the group, Postecoglou already has a raft of quality options at his disposal for the campaign ahead due to detailed squad building.
The Aussie needs to whittle that down to 11 starters every week and, asked if he didn’t envy the job of narrowing it down, Hart smiled: “Absolutely not. That’s why I’m just a soldier and he’s the general! If I’m asked to play, I’ll play, that’s all I need to worry about.”
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