Captain Callum McGregor believes continued success at Celtic should not be underestimated, saying that the club’s domination has “desensitised everyone to how actually difficult it is”.
Celtic are on the brink of a 13th Premiership title in 14 years as they hold a 15-point lead with five matches remaining.
Brendan Rodgers’ side are also strong favourites to beat Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final as they bid for a sixth treble in nine seasons.
Asked about meeting lofty expectations on such a consistent level, the 31-year-old midfielder said: “I think it’s desensitised everyone to how actually difficult it is. It just becomes expected, it becomes the norm.
“But the players have to then live with that because it’s the standards that they’ve set.
“The level of player, the level of team that we’ve managed to build here over the last 10 years or so has been a really successful team.
“So every year the expectation is there. It grows and grows and you have to stay with that as a player.
“It’s a kind of double-edged sword for us because we are the ones that have set that expectation but that’s where you want to be as a footballer. You want to be tested, you want to be playing on the limit all the time and expect to have success.”
Celtic enjoyed a good run in Europe too this season, making it to the play-off round in the Champions League, where they narrowly lost out to Bayern Munich.
“It’s a really high bar but it’s what the people here pride themselves on every year, is trying to win all the domestic trophies,” McGregor added.
“And then the big thing for everyone on the outside is that we did make progress in Europe.
“Everything about the club is in a good way, everybody feels good about it and, make no mistake, when we come back in the summer then it resets and the expectation is there again to try and be even better.”
McGregor is on the cusp of overtaking the 23 trophies won at Celtic by the legendary Billy McNeill, with only current team-mate James Forrest and Bobby Lennox ahead of him on 25.
“When you’re way back at the start and you get the first one, you feel like you’re on top of the mountain,” he explained. “And you keep doing it, keep being successful, it never really fades in that sense.
“But obviously over the period of time I became more and more involved, played bigger roles as the seasons went on, so you feel more responsibility, you feel more expectation on you to be the guy that drives the team forward.
“When you feel more responsibility, ultimately it feels better when you actually do cross the finish line.”
