Celtic Slang | About Celtic | Celtic’s Foundation
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Reference to: Undefeated domestic league campaigns
Derivations: The Scottish Invincibles; InVIncibles (Capitalised ‘VI’ for six as achieved whilst doing six-in-a-row league titles)
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The ‘Invincibles‘ tag was adopted in 2017 following the remarkable unbeaten domestic record under Brendan Rodgers in his debut season as manager.
Originally coined for the unbeaten, double winning Preston North End side of 1888/89, the modern usage of the term came in reference in 2003/04 when Arsenal won the English Premier League undefeated, and just narrowly missed out on reaching the Champions League final (ironically being dumped out by English opponents). Their unbeaten league run would stretch to an English record of 49 matches before defeat at the hands of Manchester United.
– The Original Invincibles (not so invincible)
The original usage of ‘Invincible‘ for Celtic sides actually came in the early days of the club as the first team began to establish and make a name for itself. This was before established league set-ups, but Celtic had already generated an air of respect, due to the composition of well-known and proven players from Renton and Hibs who had just joined the new club.
In Celtic’s first competitive endeavour, the club were playing in the Glasgow Exhibition Cup at the Exhibition grounds in Kelvinside and made it to the final to play Cowlairs. Celtic duly lost 2-0. The ‘Dundee Courier’ Newspaper in their match report had stated that:
“The defeat was serious as it was expected that Celtic composed largely of Edinburgh Hibernian and Renton, would be invincible“.
So from the off for Celtic, it was an invaluable lesson, and the tag was best locked away until the club had proven itself. Granted, it was not used by Celtic directly but by others, but still the club had to win first.
Notably, at the post-match dinner following the Celtic defeat, John Glass publicly vowed that the Cowlairs supporters who had disgracefully tormented the Celtic players that day would be taught a lesson they would never forget and that there was only one way to do it. Merely winning trophies would never be enough to satisfy the wearers of the green & white and their supporters, it would be done in the truly unique style of the ‘Celtic race’ – with ingenuity, skill and passion.
– 1897/98 Invincibles
The first true ‘Invincibles‘ Celtic side was in 1897/98, when the Celtic first team won the league title undefeated in what was then an 18 game season. An incredible achievement regardless of the number of games, with Celtic dropping points in just three drawn games.
The final match of the season was a 0-0 draw with Rangers at home in April – actually the rearranged Ne’erday game after the original fixture was abandoned due to ‘spectator encroachment’ – though the Bhoys had long since wrapped up the title and had already played the first leg of a ‘Championship of Great Britain‘ against English title-holders Sheffield United.
– 2016/17 InVIncibles
Celtic incredibly went unbeaten throughout all domestic competition in this magical season. In true Celtic fashion it was sealed with an injury time winner against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final to send the support into raptures and put Brendan Rodgers firmly into the history books in only his first season. Remarkably, this achievement came after Celtic lost their opening Champions League qualifier to the Gibraltarian part-timers of Lincoln Red Imps at the very start of the season.
The adapted term used for this team was ‘InVIncible‘, tinkered to reflect six league titles in a row (Roman Numerals of ‘VI’).
Celtic’s invincibility was coincidentally linked with that of the last British side to go unbeaten, as Kolo Touré was a member of both the Hoops of 2016/17 and the Arsenal side of 2003/04. Admittedly Kolo was mostly a bit-part player for Celtic, but he played his role well in what matches he played – particularly early in the season – and was an important member of the squad as a coach and mentor. Videos of celebrations on the sealing of the league title centred round him and he went viral on social media.
As a measure of the significance of the above achievement, Martin O’Neill with a more experienced and settled side – one year removed from the run to the UEFA Cup final – went very close to achieving the feat first in the modern era with Celtic in 2003/04 (coincidentally in the same season as Arsenal!) but fell short with a defeat to Aberdeen after the league was clinched. The achievement of MON’s countryman more than made up for that disappointment.
There may be critics of Scottish football who have belittled the achievement, but a bit of perspective is needed. The level of concentration and dedication to keep up such a run is incredible. Celtic were predicted in the previous seasons to achieve the treble with ease as there was no challenge from Rangers (deceased), Sevco or the Edinburgh clubs (both having been relegated to the second tier), as well as a perceived paucity of talent in the Premiership.
Celtic didn’t win the treble in those supposedly less competitive seasons. In the season prior to invincibility, only the league title found its way to Paradise. Having achieved the invincible season when Scottish football was regarded as ‘stronger’ reflects how genuinely good Celtic were in season 2016-17. Aberdeen achieved a record points tally, Hearts were back in the top flight and strengthening, and Sevco were in the Premiership, with various pundits having predicted that Celtic were to be toppled by the Govan upstarts. They didn’t even come close – the Bhoys laid down a marker with a 5-1 hammering in the first Glasgow derby in September (thanks to a Moussa Dembélé hat-trick), with further triumphs in the semi-finals of both cups and capped off with a memorable trip to Ibrox in April for another 5-1 humbling of the Orcs.
Only 8 points were dropped all season – in draws against both Highland sides, Inverness and Ross County, and both Glasgow sides – Partick Thistle and Sevco. The winning point total (106) was a European top flight record. The number of wins in going unbeaten (34), a world record. The gap between first and second (30 points) was bettered only by megabucks French side Paris Saint-Germain the season before.
The Bhoys swept the post-season honours as well. Brendan Rodgers won all three (SPFL, PFAS and SFWA) Manager of the Year awards. Kieran Tierney won both (SFWA and PFAS) Young Player of the Year awards. Scott Sinclair won the PFAS Player’s Player of the Year and the SFWA Footballer of the Year. Captain Scott Brown won the SPFL Player of the Year. Six Celts (Lustig, Tierney, Armstrong, Brown, Dembélé, Sinclair) appeared in the PFAS Team of the Year, although it could be argued that the whole Celtic team could have been in there.
A feat praised by all across the football world, and timed beautifully to coincide with the celebrations of the 50th anniversary for the Lisbon Lions’ memorable season.
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