When you are in the midst of success, you just don’t get the chance to really enjoy it.

Those Celtic players will have enjoyed the celebrations back at the park on Sunday evening after helping Brendan Rodgers to his seventh successive trophy as Hoops boss but I can guarantee you that it is minds back on the job now.

Rangers went to the top of the league at the weekend for the first time since they were back in the top flight. And I think Celtic will appreciate that they are in a challenge for the title now.

There are no medals handed out in December. There’s no prizes for sitting at the top of the league 14 games in.

Celtic won’t be craning their neck to look over the fence. They’ll be wanting to simply go and win their own games and concentrate on what it is that they need to do.

But I believe it is a genuine title challenge and I also believe that Celtic will be strong enough to prevail and come out on top.

But there will be no-one handing it to them. And while that game at Ibrox on the 29th will be seen as key going into the winter break, I actually don’t agree with that.

It’s huge, of course, it is and for all sorts of reasons. But for me where you win the title is not always where the TV cameras and the electric atmosphere is but when it is a rotten, freezing night and you still need to go out and dig out the points, whether the team play well or not.

So this Wednesday’s game at Fir Park for me is as big as any Celtic have played this week.

Going into the game against Motherwell on the back of what was a huge win in Trondheim and with the first bit of the silverware of the season secured so there is momentum and belief there.

But this is the first time that Celtic have found themselves playing second fiddle to Rangers. They have a game in hand and I don’t for one second think that there will be anxiety on the part of Rodgers’ side – but you would still have to say that right now there is a bigger challenge than they have had in recent seasons.

And, of course, having won the Betfred League Cup on Sunday the whole focus now will really be on a Treble Treble.

The players won’t discuss it, the manager will bat it away at every turn and when you are in the team in a situation like that the last thing you really want to do is lose your focus by getting too carried away with yourself.

But the fans will talk about it now. They want it, they’ll dream of it and from where I stand, I think Celtic can do it.

They have the best squad in the country. They have the best players, they have the bit between their teeth and they have a manager who has proven himself to be top class.

The only thing that can beat them is complacency. And not investing in January.

On the first point, I just don’t think Rodgers is the kind of manager who would allow them to lose their way. I think we have all seen the incessant demands that he puts upon his players and his teams – you can see it in the seven successive titles.

He has made himself a legend at Celtic no matter what happens next. His achievements and the way they have been so relished by the Celtic support will stand long after he has left the club but he will want his players to keep on going.

On the second point, Celtic will invest in this window. I think Peter Lawwell was quoted as saying they would at the recent AGM and after a very difficult and frustrating summer I think the onus is on the club to go and show that they back the manager in the transfer market.

The form has been good over recent months, the results have been good and all of a sudden it looks like it could be a fine end to the year. There is a genuine chance of European football after Christmas and there is a real feelgood factor around the club just now.

I just think that the chance to sit back and take a little stock will be in January. Right now it is a month that will be definitive in just how the season as a whole shapes up and you can guarantee that there will be no time for the indulgence of any hangovers from Rodgers this week.

And that is the way it should be. The time to look back and give yourself a pat on the back doesn’t really come until you hang up the boots.

And given the heights that these Celtic players have scaled they’ll be able to relive these glory days time and time again when supporters look back and reminisce with them.