RYAN Christie was over the moon when Celtic secured their ninth consecutive league title, but thinks the significance of the achievement will take much longer to process. The midfielder feels the same about most of the club’s unprecedented success in recent seasons, and said he and his peers are now nevertheless focused on the next one.

The 25-year-old likened title number nine to his 2015 Scottish Cup win with Inverness, suggesting it took years for him to get his head around that achievement. He expects the same in this instance, and said he’s not sure this Hoops side is even capable of resting on its laurels.

“For the players, and I can only talk for myself here, but I don’t think the achievement of nine in-a-row has really sunk in,” said Christie in an exclusive interview with the Celtic View 9 in-a-row special. “I think for these kinds of things, you need to wait a few years and look back on it, to see how big an achievement it was.

“We’ve always had that mindset, to keep marching on, don’t take your foot off the pedal, because as soon as you do that, as soon as you start to rest on what you’ve already achieved, that’s when everyone else will catch up with us. We’re definitely of the mindset to keep pushing forward.”

Christie acknowledged the unusual circumstances encompassing world football at present, but said little changes in the champions’ approach to what lies ahead. In pre-season, that’s hard work, and, when the 2020/21 campaign kicks off, that’s winning games.

“When do we forget about nine and focus on 10?” Christie added. “We’re in very different circumstances at the moment, so I think that everyone is just desperate to get back to football, and we’re all looking forward to getting on to the first game, whenever that can be, because everybody misses it so much. Once we’re all back in together, once we’re able to get into pre-season, that’s when we press the reset button once again, set new goals and then go again.

“Again, we’ve never been a team to look back on what we’ve achieved already, we always want to keep pushing. This break has been frustrating in so many ways, and for so many people, but football-wise, I think it’ll help from a mindset perspective.

“There are, of course, more important things, not least health, but I think everyone realises quite how much they miss football when it’s gone, and how much we need to savour it when we’ve got it. I suspect there’ll be a big football boom once everything is back to some level of safe normality and we’re on the other side of the current situation.”

The Celtic View is the Voice of the 9-in-a-row champions and we’re celebrating an incredible football success under Neil Lennon with a special 100-page issue, OUT NOW.

To order your copy of this 9-in-a-row celebratory issue, CLICK HERE.

Ryan Christie: 9 in-a-row hasn’t sunk in but we’re already onto 10