BRENDAN Rodgers’ eyes are on the prize and not the history books. This is why his team continue to create history.

Last season was one of the greatest for Celtic in all their years. This one, perhaps, not so much and yet this could well be the team who do what no others have done, and that includes Rangers down the decades, which is to win a treble in consecutive seasons.

Jock Stein’s men won the treble twice, two seasons apart, but they never managed to do it back-to-back. The complete and utter duds.

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In 1994, even Walter Smith’s dominant Rangers side failed. They had one magnificent chance, all they had to do was beat Dundee United to win the Scottish Cup and it would have been six trophies out of six over two seasons.

But they fell short. Even those sides far better than the rest in Scottish football have not managed to do what Rodgers’ team could achieve come May.

Rangers, of all teams, could stop them on Sunday of course, but while their task is not impossible, given that they haven’t won this fixture for nine games, it will certainly be tricky to see past a Celtic win in the Scottish Cup semi-final. Then it’s either Aberdeen or Motherwell in the final next month.

One reason, perhaps the biggest, why Celtic continue to be so dominant domestically is because of the way the manager works. Let everyone else worry about records is his philosophy. There is business to be done.

“The history is not weighing on us,” said Rodgers calmly. “We just have to do our job. We set our targets and goals and one of them is to win the league. The Scottish Cup is another.

“We wanted to not just defend the trophy but to win it again. But it doesn’t cloud our thinking. We still come in and enjoy our work. I tend not to think about the other stuff too much.

Read more: Steven Thompson: Celtic double-treble would hit a bum note in Scottish game

“If you do and got wrapped up in the whole history or the expectation, then you put yourself in a pressure trap. You don’t need that. There’s enough pressure in football. I am here to win but I am here to get the team playing well enough to win, and hopefully that will continue in all of the games until the end of the season.”

Ah, but it is Rangers on Sunday. There may be bloggers who spend their entire existence preaching that this game doesn’t really matter anymore, but it does. Of course, it does.

Anyone with a pulse still feels the excitement of our game’s biggest and most flawed attraction.

And this time it’s more than a win at stake. Celtic fans at least will feel the treble is done if they win on Sunday and stretch this unbeaten derby run to ten in a row.

“Nothing changes,” said Rodgers. “We will be relaxed and focused. We enjoy the occasions at Hampden and we have done well in the games there, so hopefully we will again this time.

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“It’s important the players relax and stay focused. Avoidance is a good way to do it! Avoid all the newspapers and media. There’s always plenty of hype in these games but no matter the game or the occasion, we don’t need to magnify a Celtic-Rangers game, whatever the competition.

“They are always big games. The key thing for a manager is to manage the players and that is every week, no matter the opponent or occasion. There’s no more or less. There’s no travelling away, unless it’s the preparation for every game. We’ll do what we do and look forward to it – and hopefully grasp the opportunity.”

Rodgers was on the radio yesterday bigging up Scottish football, which even his detractors have to admit he does do well.

Celtic are miles ahead of the rest, for the minute, which is good for them but not so much for the league’s image. However, that is not to say that there are not good players and managers in the Premiership because there are.

Read more: Steven Thompson: Celtic double-treble would hit a bum note in Scottish game

“I think the league is very competitive,” said Rodgers in an interview with former Scotland international Alan Brazil. “There are really good coaches up here, Scotland as a whole has always produced outstanding players and coaches as well.

“When you look at the coaches, you’ve got Neil Lennon at Hibs, Derek McInnes at Aberdeen, Steve Clarke at Kilmarnock, and there are lots of others.

“Of course, Rangers are a big club up here and it’s always traditionally been Celtic v Rangers, but there are other big clubs as well. Rangers are competitors in the league and of course that pushes you, but no more than so than what Hearts and Hibs and Aberdeen do.

“They’re clubs with great history and with the mix of good coaches in there, it makes it very competitive. When I came up here, the standard I wanted to accept was for Celtic. At Celtic we try to set our own standard and that’s to be the best we can be.”