Peter Grant insists he wouldn’t be able to sleep all summer if he lost to Rangers in the final derby of the campaign.
The Celtic hero has made it clear there is no such thing as a dead-rubber and Brendan Rodgers’ men must go all out for the win at Ibrox and put things right after two successive derby defeats to the Light Blues.
He believes it would be gut-wrenching to not pick up the spoils in Govan and has made it clear to the current crop what the bottom line is and ahead of making the short trip across Glasgow.
He told Go Radio: “Let me tell you this. I wouldn’t be able to sleep right through the summer if you lose that one. It is as much as that.
“It is the last one of the season, the last thing you want to be going into any break is after losing a Celtic Rangers match. For either team. I don’t care who you are.
“That’s how important it is to Celtic. Celtic have not played particularly well in the last three. Even though we won the final.
“I didn’t think we played particularly well, Rangers did. The next two we haven’t played well and lost convincingly.
“It doesn’t matter if you have won the league or not. You have to try and win this game and please believe me, it will be gut-wrenching if you don’t.
Asked if it takes away from the title win losing three times in a row to Rangers, he added: “Absolutely, what are you going to hear from Rangers fans all the time?
“I know you are going to say we won the league and hopefully won the Scottish Cup and all this.
“But the bottom line is you want to make sure you beat your rivals and there is not a better feeling when you do that.”
“He continued: “I can guarantee you one of the targets would be to beat Rangers. 100 per cent. If I was sitting in that dressing room that would be my biggest target at this moment in time.
“Dead-rubbers, there is no such thing. That never even comes into the vocabulary that word.
“You have to go out and prove it all the time. That is what winners do. Going into this game, you have to win it.”
Celtic arrive at Ibrox as champions after thumping Dundee United last weekend.
Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah both grabbed doubles as part of the five goal haul with a Ryan Strain own goal also going for them.
The Hoops are on the hunt for a Treble and have four league games to go before facing Aberdeen at Hampden in the Scottish Cup Final
