PAUL McStay is in Celtic’s greatest team because he was ‘The Maestro’ for 15 seasons and 678 games.

At his peak, this Larkhall lad from a famous Celtic family was one of the best central midfielders in Europe wanted by, among others, Liverpool and Sampdoria, but who choose to stay at the club he loved and to play with such elegance in front of supporters who worshipped him.

On Sunday, this legend of Kerrydale Street will walk back onto the pitch he once graced so wonderfully with the Scottish Premiership trophy which he will present to the current captain and No.8, Scott Brown.

McStay won eight trophies as a Celtic player. His misfortune was to come up against the best Aberdeen and Dundee United teams that will ever be and then Rangers and their millions, while Celtic stumbled from disaster to the brink of bankruptcy.

I estimate that 80 per cent of what most would consider Celtic’s first-team have the same amount of more, a few quite a bit more, medals than this icon. Think on that.

There are Celtic supporters of a certain age who weren’t there in the 1990’s. Their eyes glaze over when being told tales of going six years without a trophy, Old Firm humiliations, fan boycotts and that time a fox ran across the pitch – later voted player of the season.

To paraphrase a song, they really should know their history.

“Spot on. Absolutely spot on,” was Lennon’s firm answer to whether the younger generation of Celtic supporter have been spoiled.

“They will miss it when it’s gone. Absolutely. That’s always the case in any walk of life really. What the younger generation of our fans shouldn’t take for granted is what these players are doing and what they have done.

“It’s remarkable. I can’t believe I’m sitting here talking about a treble Treble. The great teams we’ve had over the history of the club never achieved anything like that.

“Winning the treble was like the Holy Grail back in the day. Now these boys have won two in a row and are on the cusp of a third. It’s incredible. Maybe there is a sense of entitlement among the younger fans that we never had before.

“I think there is a new breed of supporters, whether it be here or elsewhere.

“Since 19 or 20 years ago, the only thing they have really seen is success. They don’t remember the 1990s as the older generation probably do. I can’t take it for granted. They might. That comes from an immaturity from their point of view.

“In present-day football there is always a furore after one game, whether it be social media or phone-ins. I live in the real world. Social media is not the real world. I think it is poisonous myself, but good luck.”

Not winning nine and then ten will be deemed failure no matter who sits in the manager’s chair at Celtic. Lennon knows this and realises that there are quite a few in the stands who love him but don’t fancy their hero being up to breaking the record.

Lennon, with a sigh, said: “But again we’re running away with ourselves. People are talking about ‘we’ve got to get to 10’. Well no, we’ve got to get to nine first and we can talk about ten after that.

“The modern-day fan is taking it for granted that we’re going to win the ninth. You’ve got to stay in the present. We’ve got to freshen things up, squad-wise, there’s no question of that. Then we take it from there.

“The first port of call after the summer is getting into the Champions League and that would be the focus for any Celtic coach or manager rather than concentrating on the league.”

Last week, Celtic came away from Ibrox with nothing but bad memories. It has happened before, not that you would have known by the reaction of some supporters.

As the Celtic manager said: “Martin O’Neill lost there. Gordon Strachan lost there. Tony Mowbray lost there. I’ve lost there. Brendan lost there. It happens.

“We only got back in training on Wednesday, we had a small group in, and it’s gone. The players had the handbrake on, there’s no question about that.

“Psychologically, we weren’t there. We did an analysis of the game and it lasted three minutes. We just showed them the first three minutes because that’s the reason we lost the game.”

Lennon seems relaxed about it all. He has been the most talked about football person in Scottish football for almost 20 years, but it must hurt when those who follow the team take apart every performance and judge him and a team that is tired and isn’t his.

He said: “It’s unbelievable. Maybe it’s because Brendan has left, and I’ve come in that we’re getting analysed to death from game to game. The league was done a week earlier. We won the league comfortably. I read we’d stuttered over the line which is complete nonsense.

“The league was done in a good fashion. I understand them coming down a little bit. They have to get back on it for the next ten days or so and really focus on winning the Scottish Cup.”

And as for Rangers…

“There was a lot of talk when Steven came in about putting in a title challenge and there being a feel-good factor around it, but the players have seen it off again this year. We are two trophies in and going for a third one for the third successive season.”

Quite. Those Celtic fans who are spoiled should be given DVDs of the 1990s.