Celtic’s total dominance of Scottish football sure to revive talk of joining English leagues

As Celtic clinch the Scottish Premiership title by a 25 point margin, Matt Smith suggests that the talk will soon turn to whether the Glasgow club could feasibly join the English system.

Brendan Rodgers led Celtic to the Scottish Premiership title after 30 games of the season, winning 28 and drawing two. Ian MacNicol / Getty Images

Celtic sauntered to their sixth consecutive Scottish Premiership title in record time on Sunday with a 5-0 win over Hearts at Tynecastle.

A Scott Sinclair hat-trick plus a goal apiece for Stuart Armstrong and Patrick Roberts meant the party could start in Edinburgh.

There was such an air of eventuality over the affair that it felt somewhat flat for what is an excellent achievement.

There are still eight games to go for each team in the elite league in Scotland and the Glasgow giants already have their order confirmed with the flag makers.

Aberdeen, in second place, are 25 points behind, with a gulf emerging between the North-East team and the best of the rest.

The resurrected club Rangers are lagging a further 10 points behind, with Celtic’s victims yesterday — Hearts, regarded as a “big” force in Scottish football — languishing in fifth place.

There are only 12 teams in the Scottish top flight, which means the opposition for the Celtic Juggernaut can get monotonous as 4-0 or 5-0 wins become the norm.

When said flag is unfurled over the Celtic Park stadium in late July or early August, there will be the same air of inevitability as a new season kicks off.

Celtic win.

As Sinclair said after the win over Hearts: “We keep winning and that’s the mentality here — to keep going.”

For many years, a move to the English leagues and a pop at the “big boys” has been touted and normally falls on deaf ears.

However, maybe now is the time to make it a reality.

With the new-look Rangers, after years in the wilderness, struggling, there are no big rivals left for Celtic in their home country.

This is a club whose fans are used to winning and they regularly welcome 60,000 supporters through there gates for domestic and European fixtures.

They would be no poor neighbours joining the top table in England.

Their average attendance is greater than, at last count, all but English Premier League clubs — Manchester United and Arsenal — and the move itself would garner so much interest, the eyes on the television sets alone would be a massive financial boost for all concerned.

Never mind the added interest from travelling fans wanting a day out in Scotland’s biggest city.

Swansea City, Cardiff City, Newport County, Wrexham, Colwyn Bay and Merthyr Town are all Welsh teams that play in England, so to uproot Celtic and give them a spot in the English league would not be regarded as a precedent.

Where they are parachuted in is a different matter.

Surely a few noses would be out of joint if they demand a place in the Premier League or the Championship.

However, given the power, momentum, fan base and marketing potential, they would surely be up there soon regardless of their initial entry point.

This is a team that drew twice with Manchester City on Uefa Champions League duty this season.

They already have a ready-made man in charge in the shape of manager Brendan Rodgers, the former Liverpool manager.

Also, they have players such as Sinclair, Moussa Dembele, Armstrong and Leigh Griffiths who would not look out of place among the English top teams.

Maybe it’s time to give them their shot.

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