All roads lead to Paradise tomorrow evening as Monday night football returns to the home of the Celts as Hibernian visit – and with it, a thronging crowd ready to acclaim their heroes as they enter the arena with supporters returning again after another, thankfully short, break of attendances being cut due to covid.

As if that wasn’t enough to look forward to, it’s the first game of 2022, the first home game since December 12, the first home game since lifting the League Cup against tomorrow night’s visitors AND there’s the prospect of witnessing the new Japanese trio in action to add to an already potent mix of anticipation and expectation

It would be hard, though, to find anyone inside the stadium looking forward to the occasion as much as Ange Postecoglou - the man who steered the Celts to that League Cup victory, the man who delivered the new Bhoys from the Far East to the East End of Glasgow, and a man who is a fervent proponent of the great Jock Stein’s proclamation, “Football without the fans is nothing!”

And thousands of those fans will pass by those very words etched into the base of Jock Stein’s statue tomorrow prior to taking their seats at the shrine created by the vision of men like Stein and carried on by Ange Postecoglou.

The manager said of fans being allowed back: “It’s great for the game, there wouldn’t be a person involved in football who wouldn’t welcome that and I think it shows that clubs took the right course of action.

“And although we took the right course of action, we understood why the government had to do what it did at that time.

“But, as I said at the time, I thought it was quite logical with the natural break that our season has that other leagues don’t have, it would have been ludicrous to try and play through that without crowds.

“We gave ourselves at least an opportunity and the games are starting again and we’ve only really had one round without the fans in, and I think that’s a testament to the fact that I think everyone was looking at the greater good.

“And the greater good is that our supporters and clubs are hand-in-hand in making sure that games are played in full stadiums.”

Paradise awaits the return of the Celts both on and off the park